José L. Barros-Justo, Samuel Sepúlveda, Nelson Martínez-Araujo et al.
Context: The Evidence-Based Software Engineering (EBSE) paradigm and the planning phase of a systematic literature review. Objective: A protocol to do a systematic literature review with detailed information about the processes suggested by several guidelines in the field of evidence-based software engineering. Method: An analisys of recent systematic literature reviews published in world leading journals, plus the use of two renowned guidelines and a textbook to sinthetise a formal plan (the protocol). Results: The validated protocol Conclusions: We found that most of the published systematic reviews lack on reporting the protocol, or it is weak. There is a lack of tool support to develop formal protocols. Although a protocol, like a plan, must have the flexibility to adapt to unforeseen situations, its objective is that the actual activities should resemble as far as possible of those already planned. Therefore, it is a difficult balance to achieve and, researchers must be careful not to introduce alterations that could become threats to the validity of the entire work.