@article {636197, title = {Preliminary guidelines for empirical research in software engineering}, journal = {IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.}, volume = {28}, number = {8}, year = {2002}, month = {08/2002}, pages = {721{\textendash}734}, publisher = {IEEE Press}, address = {Piscataway, NJ, USA}, abstract = {Empirical software engineering research needs research guidelines to improve the research and reporting processes. We propose a preliminary set of research guidelines aimed at stimulating discussion among software researchers. They are based on a review of research guidelines developed for medical researchers and on our own experience in doing and reviewing software engineering research. The guidelines are intended to assist researchers, reviewers, and meta-analysts in designing, conducting, and evaluating empirical studies. Editorial boards of software engineering journals may wish to use our recommendations as a basis for developing guidelines for reviewers and for framing policies for dealing with the design, data collection, and analysis and reporting of empirical studies. }, keywords = {empirical software research, research guidelines, statistical mistakes}, issn = {0098-5589}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2002.1027796}, author = {Kitchenham, Barbara A. and Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence and Pickard, Lesley M. and Jones, Peter W. and Hoaglin, David C. and Emam, Khaled El and Rosenberg, Jarrett} }