Context: Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have become standard practise as part of software engineering research, although their quality varies. To build on the reviews, both for future research and industry practice, they need to be of high quality. Objective: To assess the quality of SLRs in software engineering, we put forward an appraisal instrument for SLRs. The instrument is intended for use by appraisers of reviews, but authors may also use it as a checklist when designing and documenting their reviews. Method: A well-established appraisal instrument from research in healthcare was used as a starting point to develop a quality assessment instrument. It is adapted to software engineering using guidelines, checklists, and experiences from software engineering. As a validation step, the first version was reviewed by four external experts on SLRs in software engineering and updated based on their feedback. Results: The outcome of the research is an appraisal instrument for the quality assessment of SLRs in software engineering. The instrument intends to support the appraiser in assessing the quality of an SLR. The instrument includes 16 items with different options to capture the quality. The item is assessed on a two or three-grade scale, depending on the item. The instrument also supports consolidating the items into groups, which are then used to assess the overall quality of a systematic literature review. Conclusion: It is concluded that the presented instrument may be helpful support for an appraiser in assessing the quality of SLRs in software engineering.

中文翻译：

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软件工程系统文献综述的质量评估工具

背景：作为软件工程研究的一部分，系统文献综述 (SLR) 已成为标准做法，尽管它们的质量各不相同。为了建立在评论的基础上，无论是为了未来的研究还是行业实践，它们都需要高质量。目的：为了评估软件工程中单反的质量，我们提出了一种单反的评价工具。该工具旨在供评论的评价者使用，但作者也可以在设计和记录他们的评论时将其用作检查表。方法：使用来自医疗保健研究的完善的评估工具作为开发质量评估工具的起点。它使用软件工程的指南、清单和经验来适应软件工程。作为验证步骤，第一个版本由四位软件工程 SLR 的外部专家审查，并根据他们的反馈进行更新。结果： 研究结果是软件工程中 SLR 质量评估的评估工具。该仪器旨在支持评估师评估 SLR 的质量。该仪器包括 16 个项目，具有不同的选项来捕获质量。根据项目的不同，该项目采用二级或三级量表进行评估。该工具还支持将项目合并成组，然后用于评估系统文献综述的整体质量。结论：得出的结论是，所提出的工具可能有助于评估师评估软件工程中 SLR 的质量。