[Context] Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) have been adopted by the Software Engineering (SE) community for approximately 15 years to provide meaningful summaries of evidence on several topics. Many of these SLRs are now potentially outdated, and there are no systematic proposals on when to update SLRs in SE. [Objective] The goal of this paper is to provide recommendations on when to update SLRs in SE. [Method] We evaluated, using a three-step approach, a third-party decision framework (3PDF) employed in other fields, to decide whether SLRs need updating. First, we conducted a literature review of SLR updates in SE and contacted the authors to obtain their feedback relating to the usefulness of the 3PDF within the context of SLR updates in SE. Second, we used these authors feedback to see whether the framework needed any adaptation; none was suggested. Third, we applied the 3PDF to the SLR updates identified in our literature review. [Results] The 3PDF showed that 14 of the 20 SLRs did not need updating. This supports the use of a decision support mechanism (such as the 3PDF) to help the SE community decide when to update SLRs. [Conclusions] We put forward that the 3PDF should be adopted by the SE community to keep relevant evidence up to date and to avoid wasting effort with unnecessary updates.

中文翻译：

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何时更新软件工程中的系统文献综述

[上下文] 软件工程 (SE) 社区采用系统文献评论 (SLR) 已有大约 15 年的时间，以提供有关多个主题的有意义的证据摘要。许多这些 SLR 现在可能已经过时，并且没有关于何时更新 SE 中的 SLR 的系统建议。[目的] 本文的目的是就何时更新 SE 中的 SLR 提供建议。[方法] 我们采用三步法评估其他领域采用的第三方决策框架（3PDF），以决定单反相机是否需要更新。首先，我们对 SE 中的 SLR 更新进行了文献回顾，并联系了作者，以获取他们关于 3PDF 在 SE 中 SLR 更新的背景下的有用性的反馈。其次，我们使用这些作者的反馈来查看框架是否需要任何调整；没有人建议。第三，我们将 3PDF 应用于文献综述中确定的 SLR 更新。[结果] 3PDF 显示 20 台 SLR 中有 14 台不需要更新。这支持使用决策支持机制（例如 3PDF）来帮助 SE 社区决定何时更新 SLR。[结论] 我们提出 SE 社区应采用 3PDF，以保持相关证据的更新，避免不必要的更新浪费精力。