Empirical Software Engineering

Papers
(The median citation count of Empirical Software Engineering is 4. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-07-01 to 2025-07-01.)
ArticleCitations
Introduction to the special issue on program comprehension203
An empirical study on the effectiveness of large language models for SATD identification and classification96
Optimal priority assignment for real-time systems: a coevolution-based approach81
Consensus task interaction trace recommender to guide developers’ software navigation64
Effects of variability in models: a family of experiments64
On the adoption and effects of source code reuse on defect proneness and maintenance effort63
Path context augmented statement and network for learning programs63
Does the first response matter for future contributions? A study of first contributions58
Dynamical analysis of diversity in rule-based open source network intrusion detection systems57
The human experience of comprehending source code in virtual reality50
More than React: Investigating the Role of Emoji Reaction in GitHub Pull Requests44
Can static analysis tools find more defects?44
Toward effective secure code reviews: an empirical study of security-related coding weaknesses41
An empirical study of IoT topics in IoT developer discussions on Stack Overflow40
Understanding the characteristics and the role of visual issue reports40
Seeing the invisible: test prioritization for object detection system39
A study of documentation for software architecture38
Evaluating few-shot and contrastive learning methods for code clone detection35
Efficient static analysis and verification of featured transition systems34
TestEvoViz: visualizing genetically-based test coverage evolution33
Smells in system user interactive tests32
Bugs in machine learning-based systems: a faultload benchmark32
Evaluating software user feedback classifier performance on unseen apps, datasets, and metadata32
Cross-status communication and project outcomes in OSS development31
A fine-grained taxonomy of code review feedback in TypeScript projects30
Collaboration failure analysis in cyber-physical system-of-systems using context fuzzy clustering30
The impact of class imbalance techniques on crashing fault residence prediction models29
App review driven collaborative bug finding28
What causes exceptions in machine learning applications? Mining machine learning-related stack traces on Stack Overflow28
On the use of commit-relevant mutants28
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s contribution to public code28
Testing the past: can we still run tests in past snapshots for Java projects?28
Automated test generation for Scratch programs27
Deep learning techniques to detect cybersecurity attacks: a systematic mapping study27
Evaluating the impact of flaky simulators on testing autonomous driving systems26
Towards cost-benefit evaluation for continuous software engineering activities26
Developers’ perception matters: machine learning to detect developer-sensitive smells26
Practitioner’s view of the success factors for software outsourcing partnership formation: an empirical exploration26
Automatic prediction of rejected edits in Stack Overflow24
BTLink : automatic link recovery between issues and commits based on pre-trained BERT model24
On the impact of security vulnerabilities in the npm and RubyGems dependency networks24
Deep learning based identification of inconsistent method names: How far are we?24
How far are we with automated machine learning? characterization and challenges of AutoML toolkits23
Experimental comparison of features, analyses, and classifiers for Android malware detection23
Static detection of equivalent mutants in real-time model-based mutation testing23
Visualizing the customization endeavor in product-based-evolving software product lines: a case of action design research22
Indentation and reading time: a randomized control trial on the differences between generated indented and non-indented if-statements22
An empirical evaluation of a novel domain-specific language – modelling vehicle routing problems with Athos22
A grounded theory of community package maintenance organizations22
The well-being of software engineers: a systematic literature review and a theory21
How far are app secrets from being stolen? a case study on android21
JNFuzz-Droid: a lightweight fuzzing and taint analysis framework for native code of Android applications21
Securing dependencies: A comprehensive study of Dependabot’s impact on vulnerability mitigation21
Advantages and disadvantages of (dedicated) model transformation languages21
On combining commit grouping and build skip prediction to reduce redundant continuous integration activity21
Real world projects, real faults: evaluating spectrum based fault localization techniques on Python projects21
A configurable method for benchmarking scalability of cloud-native applications20
A large-scale empirical study of commit message generation: models, datasets and evaluation20
An empirical study of the impact of log parsers on the performance of log-based anomaly detection20
An empirical study of untangling patterns of two-class dependency cycles20
Code reviews in open source projects : how do gender biases affect participation and outcomes?20
An empirical study on the potential of word embedding techniques in bug report management tasks20
Software product line testing: a systematic literature review19
Towards a recipe for language decomposition: quality assessment of language product lines19
Patterns of multi-container composition for service orchestration with Docker Compose19
Demystifying regular expression bugs19
Engineering recommender systems for modelling languages: concept, tool and evaluation19
What really changes when developers intend to improve their source code: a commit-level study of static metric value and static analysis warning changes19
LineFlowDP: A Deep Learning-Based Two-Phase Approach for Line-Level Defect Prediction19
Lightweight dynamic build batching algorithms for continuous integration18
A metrics-based approach for selecting among various refactoring candidates18
Common challenges of deep reinforcement learning applications development: an empirical study18
Systematic Evaluation of Deep Learning Models for Log-based Failure Prediction18
When less is more: on the value of “co-training” for semi-supervised software defect predictors18
Take a deep breath: Benefits of neuroplasticity practices for software developers and computer workers in a family of experiments18
On the Investigation of Empirical Contradictions - Aggregated Results of Local Studies on Readability and Comprehensibility of Source Code18
OpTrans: enhancing binary code similarity detection with function inlining re-optimization17
Software testing in the machine learning era17
Mastering uncertainty in performance estimations of configurable software systems17
An investigation of online and offline learning models for online Just-in-Time Software Defect Prediction16
Semantic matching in GUI test reuse16
RAG-Driven multiple assertions generation with large language models16
Comparing effectiveness and efficiency of Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) and Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) tools in a large java-based system16
Präzi: from package-based to call-based dependency networks16
Automated driver management for Selenium WebDriver16
Gamification in software engineering: the mediating role of developer engagement and job satisfaction16
An empirical study of Q&A websites for game developers15
Can the configuration of static analyses make resolving security vulnerabilities more effective? - A user study15
What kinds of contracts do ML APIs need?15
Is GitHub’s Copilot as bad as humans at introducing vulnerabilities in code?15
Language usage analysis for EMF metamodels on GitHub15
Test smells 20 years later: detectability, validity, and reliability15
Toward granular search-based automatic unit test case generation14
Why secret detection tools are not enough: It’s not just about false positives - An industrial case study14
Prioritizing test cases for deep learning-based video classifiers14
Semantically-enhanced topic recommendation systems for software projects14
Program transformation landscapes for automated program modification using Gin14
A study of how Docker Compose is used to compose multi-component systems14
SmartFast: an accurate and robust formal analysis tool for Ethereum smart contracts14
Studying the explanations for the automated prediction of bug and non-bug issues using LIME and SHAP14
Correction to: Examining ownership models in software teams14
Applying bayesian data analysis for causal inference about requirements quality: a controlled experiment14
Defect prediction using deep learning with Network Portrait Divergence for software evolution14
Which design decisions in AI-enabled mobile applications contribute to greener AI?14
Challenges and practices of deep learning model reengineering: A case study on computer vision14
A comprehensive overview of software product management challenges13
Reflections on the Empirical Software Engineering journal13
Static analysis driven enhancements for comprehension in machine learning notebooks13
Correction to: Towards a recipe for language decomposition: quality assessment of language product lines13
A multi-model framework for semantically enhancing detection of quality-related bug report descriptions13
A controlled experiment on the impact of microtasking on programming13
E-APR: Mapping the effectiveness of automated program repair techniques13
Experimental Evaluation of a Checklist-Based Inspection Technique to Verify the Compliance of Software Systems with the Brazilian General Data Protection Law13
DDImage: an image reduction based approach for automatically explaining black-box classifiers13
Demystifying API misuses in deep learning applications13
Fixing Dockerfile smells: an empirical study12
Cross-project defect prediction via semantic and syntactic encoding12
Finding the sweet spot for organizational control and team autonomy in large-scale agile software development12
An empirical study on self-admitted technical debt in Dockerfiles12
Modeling function-level interactions for file-level bug localization12
A fine-grained data set and analysis of tangling in bug fixing commits12
CsmithEdge: more effective compiler testing by handling undefined behaviour less conservatively12
Styler: learning formatting conventions to repair Checkstyle violations12
Seeing confusion through a new lens: on the impact of atoms of confusion on novices’ code comprehension11
On the spread and evolution of dead methods in Java desktop applications: an exploratory study11
Unveiling overlooked performance variance in serverless computing11
APR4Vul: an empirical study of automatic program repair techniques on real-world Java vulnerabilities11
A fine-grained evaluation of mutation operators to boost mutation testing for deep learning systems11
What have we learned? A conceptual framework on New Zealand software professionals and companies’ response to COVID-1911
Propagating frugal user feedback through closeness of code dependencies to improve IR-based traceability recovery11
An empirical study of same-day releases of popular packages in the npm ecosystem11
SoftNER: Mining knowledge graphs from cloud incidents11
CyberSAGE: The cyber security argument graph evaluation tool11
Learning to Predict Code Review Completion Time In Modern Code Review11
Towards automatic labeling of exception handling bugs: A case study of 10 years bug-fixing in Apache Hadoop11
Explainable automated debugging via large language model-driven scientific debugging11
A qualitative study on refactorings induced by code review11
Navigating fairness: practitioners’ understanding, challenges, and strategies in AI/ML development10
Story points changes in agile iterative development10
From guidelines to practice: assessing Android app developer compliance with google’s security recommendations10
A qualitative study of developers’ discussions of their problems and joys during the early COVID-19 months10
Inter-team communication in large-scale co-located software engineering: a case study10
Empirically evaluating flaky test detection techniques combining test case rerunning and machine learning models10
Understanding and effectively mitigating code review anxiety10
Two N-of-1 self-trials on readability differences between anonymous inner classes (AICs) and lambda expressions (LEs) on Java code snippets10
Transformer-based code model with compressed hierarchy representation10
Silent bugs in deep learning frameworks: an empirical study of Keras and TensorFlow10
Studying differentiated code to support smart contract update10
Predicting merge conflicts considering social and technical assets10
Refactoring practices in the context of data-intensive systems10
Assessing the exposure of software changes10
Towards understanding quality challenges of the federated learning for neural networks: a first look from the lens of robustness9
Automatic bi-modal question title generation for Stack Overflow with prompt learning9
How to cherry pick the bug report for better summarization?9
Toward a theory on programmer’s block inspired by writer’s block9
What happens in my code reviews? An investigation on automatically classifying review changes9
Can search-based testing with pareto optimization effectively cover failure-revealing test inputs?9
Machine learning-based test smell detection9
Extracting enhanced artificial intelligence model metadata from software repositories9
IRJIT: A simple, online, information retrieval approach for just-in-time software defect prediction9
Agile software development one year into the COVID-19 pandemic9
Detecting data manipulation errors in android applications using scene-guided exploration9
The forgotten role of search queries in IR-based bug localization: an empirical study9
Deep learning approaches for bad smell detection: a systematic literature review9
Come for syntax, stay for speed, write secure code: an empirical study of security weaknesses in Julia programs9
How do i refactor this? An empirical study on refactoring trends and topics in Stack Overflow9
An empirical study of the systemic and technical migration towards microservices9
Multi-granular software annotation using file-level weak labelling9
GitHub Discussions: An exploratory study of early adoption9
Model vs system level testing of autonomous driving systems: a replication and extension study9
Studying the characteristics of AIOps projects on GitHub9
On the assignment of commits to releases9
An empirical study on developers’ shared conversations with ChatGPT in GitHub pull requests and issues9
A comprehensive study of machine learning techniques for log-based anomaly detection9
Industrial adoption of machine learning techniques for early identification of invalid bug reports9
Evaluating pre-trained models for user feedback analysis in software engineering: a study on classification of app-reviews9
Characterizing refactoring graphs in Java and JavaScript projects9
Correction to: Utilization of pre-trained language models for adapter-based knowledge transfer in software engineering8
Software reconfiguration in robotics8
Developer-centric test amplification8
Mining and relating design contexts and design patterns from Stack Overflow8
Automated detection, categorisation and developers’ experience with the violations of honesty in mobile apps8
Software selection in large-scale software engineering: A model and criteria based on interactive rapid reviews8
Empirical evaluation of tools for hairy requirements engineering tasks8
Hyperfuzzing: black-box security hypertesting with a grey-box fuzzer8
Mining Python fix patterns via analyzing fine-grained source code changes8
A longitudinal explanatory case study of coordination in a very large development programme: the impact of transitioning from a first- to a second-generation large-scale agile development method8
WIA-SZZ: Work item aware SZZ8
SparseCoder: Advancing source code analysis with sparse attention and learned token pruning8
Quantum circuit mutants: Empirical analysis and recommendations8
Correction to: Advantages and disadvantages of (dedicated) model transformation languages8
Just-in-Time crash prediction for mobile apps8
Reuse and maintenance practices among divergent forks in three software ecosystems8
Predicting the objective and priority of issue reports in software repositories8
FeatCompare: Feature comparison for competing mobile apps leveraging user reviews8
Ethics in AI through the practitioner’s view: a grounded theory literature review8
A multi-objective effort-aware approach for early code review prediction and prioritization8
Quality issues in machine learning software systems8
Studying eventual connectivity issues in Android apps8
Improving hardware/software interface management in systems of systems through documentation as code8
Does code review speed matter for practitioners?8
On the suitability of hugging face hub for empirical studies8
How programmers find online learning resources8
Understanding refactorings in Elixir functional language8
Investigating user feedback from a crowd in requirements management in software ecosystems8
What makes a code review useful to OpenDev developers? An empirical investigation8
Opportunities and security risks of technical leverage: A replication study on the NPM ecosystem7
Correction to: Analysing app reviews for software engineering: a systematic literature review7
Design smells in multi-language systems and bug-proneness: a survival analysis7
On the acceptance by code reviewers of candidate security patches suggested by Automated Program Repair tools7
Developer discussion topics on the adoption and barriers of low code software development platforms7
Identifying self-admitted technical debt in issue tracking systems using machine learning7
Leveraging encoder-only large language models for mobile app review feature extraction7
Revisiting the building of past snapshots — a replication and reproduction study7
Tracking bad updates in mobile apps: a search-based approach7
The indolent lambdification of Java7
Vulnerabilities in infrastructure as code: what, how many, and who?7
Does class size matter? An in-depth assessment of the effect of class size in software defect prediction7
Game-based Sprint retrospectives: multiple action research7
Bug characterization in machine learning-based systems7
How are project-specific forums utilized? A study of participation, content, and sentiment in the Eclipse ecosystem7
ROBUST: 221 bugs in the Robot Operating System7
Deep security analysis of program code7
The making of accessible Android applications: an empirical study on the state of the practice7
The evolution of the code during review: an investigation on review changes7
Fluently specifying taint-flow queries with fluentTQL7
Works for Me! Cannot Reproduce – A Large Scale Empirical Study of Non-reproducible Bugs7
A systematic review on smart contracts security design patterns7
Investigating developers’ perception on software testability and its effects7
What do class comments tell us? An investigation of comment evolution and practices in Pharo Smalltalk7
Fixing vulnerabilities potentially hinders maintainability7
Integrating human values in software development using a human values dashboard7
A preliminary investigation on using multi-task learning to predict change performance in code reviews7
Causal inference of server- and client-side code smells in web apps evolution7
Rotten green tests in Java, Pharo and Python7
Do I really need all this work to find vulnerabilities?7
On the usage and development of deep learning compilers: an empirical study on TVM7
We do not understand what it says – studying student perceptions of software modelling6
Using acceptance tests to predict merge conflict risk6
The broken windows theory applies to technical debt6
Analyzing the BizDev interface in an enterprise context: a case of developers acting in business6
A theory of factors affecting continuous experimentation (FACE)6
The upper bound of information diffusion in code review6
Taxonomy of inline code comment smells6
PTM4Tag+: Tag recommendation of stack overflow posts with pre-trained models6
Correction to: Preface to the special issue on program comprehension6
Simplifying software compliance: AI technologies in drafting technical documentation for the AI Act6
Large scale reuse of microservices using CI/CD and InnerSource practices - a case study6
Analysis of a many-objective optimization approach for identifying microservices from legacy systems6
Balancing technology heterogeneity in microservice architectures6
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