A software ecosystem (SECO) is an interaction, communication, cooperation, and synergy among a set of players. Depending on the actors type of interaction with others, each one can play a different role. These interactions provide a set of positive relationships (symbiosis) between actors who work together around a common technology platform or a service. SECO has been explored in several studies, some related to their general characteristics and others focusing on a specific topic (e.g., requirements, governance, open-source, mobile). There are many literature reviews of different natures (e.g., systematic literature reviews and systematic mapping studies). This study presents the status of the SECO field motivated by analyzing several secondary studies published over the years. To do so, we conducted a tertiary study. From an initial set of 518 studies on the subject, we selected 22 studies. We identified the theoretical foundations used by researchers and their influences and relationships with other ecosystems. We performed a thematic synthesis and identified one high-order theme, 5 themes, 10 subthemes, and 206 categories. As a result, we proposed a thematic model for SECO containing five themes, namely: social, technical, business, management, and an evaluation theme named Software Ecosystems Assessment Models (SEAM). Our main conclusion is that relationships between SECO themes should not be seen in isolation, and it must be interpreted in a holistic approach, given the number of implications to other themes mainly related to the distinction of governance and management activities in the SECO interactions. Finally, this work provides an overview of the field and points out areas for future research, such as the need of SECO community to further investigate the results from other ecosystems, mainly from the Digital Ecosystem and Digital Business Ecosystem communities.

翻译：软件生态系统(SECO)是一组参与者之间的互动、交流、合作和协同作用(SECO)是一组参与者之间的一种互动、交流、合作和协同作用。根据行为者与其他人的互动类型,每个参与者可以发挥不同的作用。这些互动为围绕共同技术平台或服务共同工作的行为者提供了一系列积极关系(共生关系)。SECO在一些研究中进行了探索,有些研究涉及它们的一般特点,而另一些研究则侧重于一个具体专题(例如要求、治理、开放源代码、移动)。许多文献对不同性质(例如系统文献审查和系统绘图研究)进行了审查。本研究展示了SECO领域的现状,其动机主要是分析多年来发表的若干次次级研究。为此,我们开展了一项三级研究。从最初的一组518项研究中,我们选定了SECO的理论基础及其与其他生态系统的影响和关系。我们进行了专题综合,并确定了一个高阶主题、5个主题、10个次主题和206个类别。结果,我们为SECO提出了一个专题模型模型模型模型模型模型,其中含有五个主题,即社会、技术、企业管理、SEUR管理和SEUR主主题必须从我们最后看到SEUR的评估和SIS主主题。