Conducting Systematic Literature Review on Fairness in Software Development

This project aims to conduct a comprehensive literature review on fairness in software development. This project is built on the framework of fairness contexts and protected attributes discussed in prior work. This study will identify how fairness is studied, what has been explored, and gaps in the current literature. The outcome will provide recommendations on how researchers can further investigate fairness in software development.

Tasks

1. Collect and analyze academic papers, articles, and grey literature discussing fairness in software development.
   • Context-based fairness: Topics such as authorship, policy, recruitment, and resource allocation.
   • Protected attributes: Diversity studies focusing on gender, age, race, disability, etc.
   • Use digital libraries (e.g., ACM, IEEE, Springer) and keywords like “fairness in software engineering,” “diversity,” etc.
2. Develop a framework to categorize fairness studies.
3. Compare existing studies to highlight underexplored areas.
   • Determine where current research falls short in addressing fairness issues.
4. Develop actionable steps for researchers to address gaps.
   • Such as suggesting interdisciplinary approaches combining software engineering, and organizational justice.

Deliverables

A structured report summarizing:

1. How fairness is defined and discussed in software development studies.
2. Trends in context-based and attribute-based fairness studies.
3. Identified gaps and future directions.
4. A list of references with annotations describing their relevance to the study.

Resources

Prior Works:

1. Understanding Fairness in Software Engineering: Insights from Stack Exchange Sites
2. It is Giving Major Satisfaction: Why Fairness Matters for Developers

Guide on conducting literature reviews

1. Systematic literature reviews in software engineering – A systematic literature review