Según el artículo Systematic mapping studies in software engineering (2008), un systematic mapping study:
[...] provides a structure of the type of research reports and results that have been published by categorizing them and often gives a visual summary, the map, of its results.
It often requires less effort while providing a more coarse-grained overview.
En este artículo también se explica la necesidad de realizar un mapeo sistemático (o una revisión sistemática):
As a research area matures there is often a sharp increase in the number of reports and results made available, and it becomes important to summarize and provide overview.
Many research fields have specific methodologies for such secondary studies, and they have been extensively used in for example evidence based medicine
En este artículo se proponen las siguientes etapas para un mapeo sistemático:
- Definition of Research Questions (Research Scope).
- Conduct Search for Primary Studies (All Papers).
- Screening of Papers for Inclusion and Exclusion (Relevant Papers).
- Keywording of Abstracts (Classification Scheme).
- Data Extraction and Mapping of Studies (Systematic Map).
El resultado final de este proceso es el mapeo sistemático, que suele hacer uso de diferentes tipos de visualizaciones para mostrar los resultados: diagrama de burbujas (bubble plot), mapa de calor (heat map), diagrama de Venn, tabla de características (characteristics table), etc.
En Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update (2015) se revisa el concepto de mapeo sistemático (también llamado estudio de alcance o estudio exploratorio, scoping study, aunque presentan diferencias) y se ofrecen nuevas pautas para su realización:
Systematic mapping studies or scoping studies are designed to give an overview of a research area through classification and counting contributions in relation to the categories of that classification.
It involves searching the literature in order to know what topics have been covered in the literature, and where the literature has been published.
En Systematic Mapping Study se proporciona la siguiente definición:
A Systematic Mapping Study is defined as the process of categorizing, analyzing, and presenting existing literature relevant to a specific research topic in order to provide a comprehensive overview, identify research gaps, and guide future research directions in the field of Computer Science.
En Systematic Mapping se proporciona la siguiente definición:
Systematic Mapping, in the context of Computer Science, refers to a process of conducting an evidence-based study to provide an overview of a research area. It involves building a classification scheme, structuring evidence, and synthesizing and classifying extracted data from relevant papers. The aim is to answer research questions, interpret results, and validate and document the mapping study.
Diferencias mapeo sistemático y revisión sistemática
En Guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering (2014) se propone el término systematic literature studies para agrupar los diferentes tipos de revisiones sistemáticas:
Here, we use systematic literature studies as a collective term for systematic literature reviews and systematic mapping studies.
En Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update (2015) se explica la diferencia principal con una revisión sistemática:
Though, a systematic mapping study and a systematic literature review share some commonalities (e.g. with respect to searching and study selection),
they are different in terms of goals and thus approaches to data analysis. While systematic reviews aim at synthesizing evidence, also considering the strength of evidence,
systematic maps are primarily concerned with structuring a research area.
Las diferencias han sido analizadas en The value of mapping studies: a participant-observer case study (2010), donde se indica que un systematic mapping es una forma particular de systematic literature review:
Mapping studies use the same basic methodology as [systematic literature reviews] SLRs but aim to identify all research
related to a specific topic rather than addressing the specific questions that conventional SLRs address.
Although at the extreme, mapping studies and systematic reviews have rather different goals, there is often an overlap.
Some systematic reviews include a classification system to organise relevant literature followed by a more detailed description of the research within each category.
Un mapeo sistemático emplea los mismos métodos que una revisión sistemática, pero suele ser un estudio más sencillo de realizar ya que no tiene como objetivo analizar los resultados presentados en los artículos que conforman el mapeo. Un mapeo sistemático puede ser la base para realizar posteriormente una revisión sistemática.
En este artículo se presenta la siguiente tabla de diferencias entre un mapeo sistemático y una revisión sistemática:
| SLR process | Mapping Study | SLR |
|---|---|---|
| Research Question | General – related to research trends. Which researchers, how much activity, what type of studies etc. | Specific - related to outcomes of empirical studies. Of the form: Is technology/method A better or not than B? |
| Search process | Defined by topic area | Defined by research question |
| Search strategy requirements | Less stringent if only research trends are of interest | Extremely stringent – all relevant studies must be found |
| Quality evaluation | Not essential | Important to ensure that results are based on best quality evidence |
| Results | Set of papers related to a topic area and counts of the number of papers in various categories | Answer to specific research question, possible with qualifiers (e.g. results apply to novices only). |
En What is a “mapping study?” (2016) también se indica otra diferencia entre mapeo sistemático y revisión sistemática:
Mapping studies are also reviews, but they do not discuss the findings. They are based on the concept that published articles not only represent findings, but, indirectly, represent activity related to the finding.
It is a review that seeks to identify, not results, but linkages. Mapping focuses on characteristics such as where the activity took place, where the funding came from, and in what journal or other medium it was presented.
Referencias básicas
Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review
Cita: Jane Webster, Richard T. Watson. MIS Quarterly, Volume 26 Issue 2, June 2002, Pages xiii-xxiii.
Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews
Cita: Barbara Kitchenham. Keele University and National ICT Australia Ltd, 2004.
Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering
Cita: Barbara Kitchenham, Stuart Charters. Keele University and Durham University Joint Report, 2007.
Systematic mapping studies in software engineering
Cita: Kai Petersen, Robert Feldt, Shahid Mujtaba, Michael Mattsson. Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE'08), Pages 68-77.
Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update
Cita: Kai Petersen, Sairam Vakkalanka, Ludwik Kuzniarz. Information and Software Technology, Volume 64, August 2015, Pages 1-18.
Ejemplos de mapeo sistemático (en español)
Evidencia empírica sobre mejoras en productividad y calidad en enfoques MDD: un mapeo sistemático
Cita: Y. Martínez, C. Cachero, S. Meliá, Revista Española de Innovación, Calidad e Ingeniería del Software, 7(2), 2011.
Mapeo sistemático de la literatura sobre la Adopción de Inspecciones de Software
Cita: D. Macchi, M. Solari, Conferencia Latinoamericana de Informática (CLEI 2012).
Modelos de Madurez de Green IT: un mapeo sistemático
Cita: J. David Patón-Romero, Mario Piattini. 2017 12th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI). DOI: 10.23919/CISTI.2017.7975693.
Ejemplos de mapeo sistemático (en inglés)
Recommendation Systems in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study
Cita: Abdón Carrera Rivera, Mariela Tapia-León, Sergio Luján-Mora. International Conference on Information Technology & Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73450-7_89
Application of ontologies in higher education: A systematic mapping study
Cita: Mariela Tapia-León, Abdón Carrera Rivera, Janneth Chicaiza Espinosa, Sergio Luján-Mora. IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2018.8363385
The use of tools of data mining to decision making in engineering education—A systematic mapping study
Cita: Diego Buenaño-Fernandez, William Villegas-Ch, Sergio Luján-Mora. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Volume 27, Issue 3, May 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22100
Mobile Learning as the Key to Higher Education Innovation: A systematic mapping
Cits: Santiago Criollo-C, Oswaldo Moscoso-Zea, Andrea Guerrero-Arias, Ángel Jaramillo-Alcázar, Sergio Luján-Mora. IEEE Access, 9(1), p. 66462-66476, 2021. e-ISSN: 2169-3536. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3076148
Herramientas
- StArt (State of the Art through Systematic Review)
- SciMAT (Science Mapping Analysis Tool)
- NVivo
- Rayyan QCRI