Software engineering research is a train wreck
&quot;<i>Here’s the only technique I’ve found that works, which I call scrobbling even though that means something totally different:</i><p>&quot;<i>1. Search seed terms you know, like “cost of bugs”, in an appropriate journal (here’s one).</i><p>&quot;<i>2. Find papers that look kinda relevant, skim their abstracts and conclusions.</i><p>&quot;<i>3. Make a list of all the papers that either cite or are cited by these papers and repeat.</i><p>&quot;<i>4. Find more useful terms and repeat.</i>&quot;<p>Congratulations! You&#x27;re a grad student now!<p>P.S. When I graduated, I had a filing cabinet with two drawers full of papers that felt important enough to save printed copies, from just this process. A couple of months ago, I carted them out to the burn pile, threw them on the pile of leaves and brush, and held a Viking funeral. And I didn&#x27;t even feel bad. :-)