Using Evidence-Based Paradigm to Iteratively Acquire the Overall Picture of Primary Research Question

Formulating a well-established research question is a key step to a PhD student. In this paper, evidence-based paradigm is applied to iteratively acquire the overall picture of primary research question based on the analysis of data in practice. A PhD student's experience, centering on her chosen area-regression test selection, is conducted as a case study to open up the process. Sub-research questions are given and solutions of the correspondent questions are presented. The difficulty to understand the systematic reviews of the particular topic and how to conduct the literature review when the existing systematic review methodology is not suitable are discussed. At last findings are summarized and future work is proposed. Index Terms-Evidence-based paradigm; systematic review; primary research; research process; regression test selection