Towards a Taxonomy of Replications in Empirical Software Engineering Research: A Research Proposal

Goal: We present a research proposal that aims to collect, analyze, and synthesize data towards the construction of a taxonomy of replications in empirical software engineering research. Method: We propose a cross-sectional survey with researchers that performed replications of empirical studies in software engineering. The population of participants is comprised of all researchers that published replications in software engineering and that were identified in a recently published mapping study. Expected Results: We expect to collect data from researchers that have performed different types of replications in order to support the definition of types or categories of replication using a grounded approach. Conclusion: We expect that the study proposed in this article will motivate a discussion in the empirical software engineering community about the need for a clear cut classification of types of replications among other definitions that will be investigated.