Volume 71, 1 March 2016, Pages 108-128
Highly-cited papers in software engineering: The top-100 (Article)
a
Software Engineering Research Group, Department of Computer Engineering, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
b
Department of Informatics, Centro ALGORITMI, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Software Engineering Research Group, Department of Computer Engineering, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
b
Department of Informatics, Centro ALGORITMI, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Abstract
Context According to
the search reported in this paper, as of this writing (May 2015), a very
large number of papers (more than 70,000) have been published in the
area of Software Engineering (SE) since its inception in 1968. Citations
are crucial in any research area to position the work and to build on
the work of others. Identification and characterization of highly-cited
papers are common and are regularly reported in various disciplines.
Objective The objective of this study is to identify the papers in the
area of SE that have influenced others the most as measured by citation
count. Studying highly-cited SE papers helps researchers to see the type
of approaches and research methods presented and applied in such
papers, so as to be able to learn from them to write higher quality
papers which will likely receive high citations. Method To achieve the
above objective, we conducted a study, comprised of five research
questions, to identify and classify the top-100 highly-cited SE papers
in terms of two metrics: total number of citations and average annual
number of citations. Results By total number of citations, the top paper
is "A metrics suite for object-oriented design", cited 1817 times and
published in 1994. By average annual number of citations, the top paper
is "QoS-aware middleware for Web services composition", cited 154.2
times on average annually and published in 2004. Conclusion It is
concluded that it is important to identify the highly-cited SE papers
and also to characterize the overall citation landscape in the SE field.
We hope that this paper will encourage further discussions in the SE
community towards further analysis and formal characterization of the
highly-cited SE papers. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
the search reported in this paper, as of this writing (May 2015), a very
large number of papers (more than 70,000) have been published in the
area of Software Engineering (SE) since its inception in 1968. Citations
are crucial in any research area to position the work and to build on
the work of others. Identification and characterization of highly-cited
papers are common and are regularly reported in various disciplines.
Objective The objective of this study is to identify the papers in the
area of SE that have influenced others the most as measured by citation
count. Studying highly-cited SE papers helps researchers to see the type
of approaches and research methods presented and applied in such
papers, so as to be able to learn from them to write higher quality
papers which will likely receive high citations. Method To achieve the
above objective, we conducted a study, comprised of five research
questions, to identify and classify the top-100 highly-cited SE papers
in terms of two metrics: total number of citations and average annual
number of citations. Results By total number of citations, the top paper
is "A metrics suite for object-oriented design", cited 1817 times and
published in 1994. By average annual number of citations, the top paper
is "QoS-aware middleware for Web services composition", cited 154.2
times on average annually and published in 2004. Conclusion It is
concluded that it is important to identify the highly-cited SE papers
and also to characterize the overall citation landscape in the SE field.
We hope that this paper will encourage further discussions in the SE
community towards further analysis and formal characterization of the
highly-cited SE papers. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Author keywords
Bibliometrics; Highly-cited papers; Most cited; Most frequently cited; Software engineering; Top cited
Indexed keywords
Engineering controlled terms: Middleware; Object oriented programming; Software engineering; Web services
Bibliometrics; Highly-cited papers; Most cited; Most
frequently cited; Object oriented design; Quality papers; Research
questions; Web services composition
frequently cited; Object oriented design; Quality papers; Research
questions; Web services composition
Engineering main heading: Engineering research
ISSN: 09505849
CODEN: ISOTESource Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2015.11.003Document Type: Article
Publisher: Elsevier
Scopus - Document details
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