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ESEM 2021
Mon 11 - Fri 15 October 2021

The ESEM Technical Papers track features submissions that describe original, unpublished work in software engineering and software measurement, with a strong empirical foundation. Papers in this track should communicate fully developed research and related results. Strong emphasis should be given to the methodological aspects of the research and the discussion on the validity of results.

General Scope of Submissions

Submissions should not be under consideration for publication or presentation elsewhere.

In addition to the specific scope of this track, submissions may address any aspect of software engineering but must tackle the problem from an empirical perspective and using a rigorous empirical method, including:

  • Empirical studies using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
  • Cross- and multi-disciplinary methods and studies
  • Experiments and quasi-experiments
  • Case studies, action research, ethnography and field studies
  • Survey research
  • Simulation
  • Artifact studies
  • Data mining, machine learning, and AI-based approaches
  • Secondary and tertiary studies including
    • Systematic literature reviews and rapid reviews that include a strong synthesis part
    • Meta-analyses, and qualitative, quantitative or structured syntheses of studies
  • Replication of empirical studies and families of studies

Topics commonly addressed using an empirical approach include, but are not limited to:

  • Evaluation and comparison of software technologies
  • Evaluation and comparison of software development methods, techniques, and practices
  • Modeling, measuring, and assessing product and/or process quality
  • Modeling, measuring, and assessing software development productivity
  • Defect and quality prediction
  • Software cost and size estimation
  • Software evolution
  • Software verification and validation, including analysis and testing
  • Evaluation and modeling of contemporary software systems (IoT, Industry 4.0, Context–
  • Awareness Systems, Cyber-physical, among others)
  • Human factors, teamwork, and behavioral aspects of software engineering

We welcome submissions on these meta-topics:

  • Development, evaluation, and comparison of empirical approaches and methods
  • Infrastructure for conducting empirical studies
  • Techniques and tools for supporting empirical studies
  • Empirically-based decision making

We also welcome submissions that:

  • demonstrate multi-disciplinary work,
  • transfer and apply empirical methods from other disciplines,
  • replication studies, and
  • studies with negative findings.

ACM SIGSOFT Empirical Standards

Recently an ACM SIGSOFT Paper and Peer Review Quality Initiative has generated a proposal of empirical standards for common research methods in software engineering. Many researchers of the ESEM community have been actively involved in the initiative. Authors can consult them at the following link:

https://web.cs.dal.ca/SIGSOFT-Empirical-Standards/

Open Science Policy

Openness in science is key to fostering progress via transparency, reproducibility and replicability. While all submissions will undergo the same review process independent of whether or not they disclose their analysis code or data, we strongly encourage authors to make data available upon submission (either privately or publicly) and especially upon acceptance (publicly). If the authors cannot disclose industrial or otherwise non-public data, they should provide an explicit (short) statement in the paper.

Dates
Tracks
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Tue 12 Oct

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

14:20 - 15:15
Testing & Security 1Technical Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology
14:20
15m
Talk
A comparative study of vulnerability reporting by software composition analysis tools
Technical Papers
Nasif Imtiaz North Carolina State University, Seaver Thorn North Carolina State University, Laurie Williams North Carolina State University
Pre-print Media Attached
14:35
15m
Talk
An Empirical Study of Rule-Based and Learning-Based Approaches for Static Application Security Testing
Technical Papers
Roland Croft , Dominic Newlands University of Adelaide, Ziyu Chen Monash University, Muhammad Ali Babar University of Adelaide
Pre-print Media Attached
14:50
15m
Talk
An Empirical Analysis of Practitioners' Perspectives on Security Tool Integration into DevOps
Technical Papers
Roshan Namal Rajapakse The University of Adelaide, Mansooreh Zahedi The Univeristy of Melbourne, Muhammad Ali Babar University of Adelaide
Pre-print
15:05
10m
Talk
Why Some Bug-bounty Vulnerability Reports are Invalid?
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Saman Shafigh University of New South Wales, Boualem Benatallah University of New South Wales, Carlos Rodriguez University of New South Wales, Mortada Al-Banna University of New South Wales
15:30 - 16:35
Testing & Security 2Technical Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology
15:30
15m
Talk
Barriers to Shift-Left Security: The Unique Pain Points of Writing Automated Tests Involving Security Controls
Technical Papers
Danielle Gonzalez Rochester Institute of Technology and Microsoft, Paola Peralta Perez Rochester Institute of Technology, Mehdi Mirakhorli Rochester Institute of Technology
DOI
15:45
15m
Talk
Security Smells Pervade Mobile App Servers
Technical Papers
Pascal Gadient University of Bern, Marc-Andrea Tarnutzer University of Bern, Oscar Nierstrasz University of Bern, Switzerland, Mohammad Ghafari University of Auckland
Pre-print
16:00
15m
Talk
Who are Vulnerability Reporters? A Large-scale Empirical Study on FLOSS
Technical Papers
Nikolaos Alexopoulos Technical University of Darmstadt, Andy Meneely Rochester Institute of Technology, Dorian Arnouts Technical University of Darmstadt, Max Mühlhäuser Technical University of Darmstadt
Pre-print
16:15
10m
Talk
Python Crypto Misuses in the Wild
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Anna-Katharina Wickert TU Darmstadt, Germany, Lars Baumgärtner TU Darmstadt, Florian Breitfelder TU Darmstadt, Mira Mezini TU Darmstadt, Germany
Pre-print Media Attached
16:25
10m
Talk
Web Application Testing: Using Tree Kernels to Detect Near-duplicate States in Automated Model Inference
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Anna Corazza Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Sergio Di Martino Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Adriano Peron Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Luigi Libero Lucio Starace Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Pre-print Media Attached

Wed 13 Oct

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

13:00 - 14:10
Research MethodsEmerging Results and Vision papers / Technical Papers / Journal-first Papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Tayana Conte Universidade Federal do Amazonas
13:00
15m
Talk
The who, what, how of software engineering research: a socio-technical framework
Journal-first Papers
Margaret-Anne Storey University of Victoria, Neil Ernst University of Victoria, Courtney Williams , Eirini Kalliamvakou University of Victoria
13:15
15m
Talk
What Evidence We would Miss If We Do not Use Grey Literature?
Technical Papers
Fernando Kamei Federal Institute of Alagoas (IFAL), Gustavo Pinto Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and Zup Innovation, Igor Scaliante Wiese Federal University of Technology – Paraná - UTFPR, Márcio Ribeiro Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil, Sergio Soares Informatics Center - CIn/UFPE
Pre-print Media Attached
13:30
10m
Talk
Towards a Methodology for Participant Selection in Software Engineering Experiments. A Vision of the Future
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Valentina Lenarduzzi LUT University, Oscar Dieste Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sira Vegas Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
Pre-print Media Attached
13:40
10m
Talk
Important Experimentation Characteristics: An Expert Survey
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Florian Auer University of Innsbruck, Michael Felderer University of Innsbruck
13:50
10m
Talk
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria in Software Engineering Tertiary Studies: A Systematic Mapping and Emerging Framework
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Dolors Costal Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Carles Farré Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Xavier Franch Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Carme Quer Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
14:00
10m
Talk
Towards Sustainability of Systematic Literature Reviews
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Vinicius Santos University of São Paulo (ICMC/USP), São Carlos - SP, Anderson Y. Iwazaki University of São Paulo (ICMC/USP), São Carlos - SP, Katia Felizardo Federal Technological University of Paraná, Érica F. Souza Federal Technological University of Paraná, Cornélio Procópio - PR, Elisa Yumi Nakagawa University of São Paulo
14:20 - 15:15
Testing & Security 3Emerging Results and Vision papers / Journal-first Papers / Technical Papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Robert Feldt Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
14:20
15m
Talk
On (Mis)Perceptions of Testing Effectiveness: An Empirical Study
Journal-first Papers
Sira Vegas Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Patricia Riofrio , Esperanza Marcos Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Natalia Juristo Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
14:35
15m
Talk
Testing Smart Contracts: Which Technique Performs Best?
Technical Papers
Sefa Akca Uniersity of Edinburgh, Chao Peng University of Edinburgh, UK, Ajitha Rajan University of Edinburgh
14:50
15m
Talk
Automated isolation for white-box test generation
Journal-first Papers
Dávid Honfi , Zoltán Micskei Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Link to publication DOI
15:05
10m
Talk
Contextual Understanding and Improvement of Metamorphic Testing in Scientific Software Development
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Zedong Peng University of Cincinnati, Upulee Kanewala University of North Florida, Nan Niu University of Cincinnati
15:30 - 16:25
Development Approaches and RequirementsTechnical Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Robert Feldt Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
15:30
15m
Talk
Why Do Organizations Adopt Agile Scaling Frameworks?— A Survey of Practitioners
Technical Papers
Putta Abheeshta Aalto University, Ömer Uludag Technical University of Munich, Shun Long Hong Technical University of Munich, Maria Paasivaara LUT University, Finland & IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark & Aalto University, Finland, Casper Lassenius Aalto University, Finland and Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Norway
15:45
15m
Talk
A Model of Software Prototyping based on a Systematic Map
Technical Papers
Elizabeth Bjarnason Lund University, Sweden, Franz Lang Department of Computer Science, Lund University, Alexander Mjöberg Department of Computer Science, Lund University
Media Attached
16:00
15m
Talk
A Survey-Based Qualitative Study to Characterize Expectations of Software Developers from Five Stakeholders
Technical Papers
Khalid Hasan Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Partho Chakraborty Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh, Rifat Shahriyar Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh, Anindya Iqbal Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh, Gias Uddin University of Calgary, Canada
16:15
10m
Talk
Vision for an Artefact-based Approach to Regulatory Requirements Engineering
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Oleksandr Kosenkov fortiss GmbH, Michael Unterkalmsteiner Blekinge Institute of Technology, Daniel Mendez Blekinge Institute of Technology, Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology

Thu 14 Oct

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

13:00 - 14:05
Software Architecture and DesignTechnical Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Davide Taibi Tampere University
13:00
15m
Talk
Tackling Consistency-Related Design Challenges of Distributed Data-Intensive Systems – An Action Research Study
Technical Papers
Susanne Braun Fraunhofer IESE, Stefan Deßloch TU Kaiserslautern, Eberhard Wolff INNOQ, Frank Elberzhager Fraunhofer IESE, Andreas Jedlitschka Fraunhofer
Pre-print Media Attached
13:15
15m
Talk
Facing the Giant: a Grounded Theory Study of Decision-Making in Microservices Migrations
Technical Papers
Hamdy Michael Ayas Chalmers University of Technology | University of Gothenburg, Philipp Leitner Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden / University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Regina Hebig
Pre-print Media Attached
13:30
15m
Talk
The Existence and Co-Modifications of Code Clones within or across Microservices
Technical Papers
Ran Mo Central China Normal University, Yang Zhao Central China Normal University, Qiong Feng Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Zengyang Li Central China Normal University
DOI
13:45
10m
Talk
Study of the Utility Of Text Classification Based Software Architecture Recovery Method RELAX for Maintenance
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Daniel Link University of Southern California, Kamonphop Srisopha University of Southern California, USA, Barry Boehm University of Southern California
Media Attached
13:55
10m
Talk
Semantic Slicing of Architectural Change Commits: Towards Semantic Design Review
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Amit Kumar Mondal University of Saskatchewan, Chanchal K. Roy University of Saskatchewan, Kevin Schneider University of Saskatchewan, Banani Roy University of Saskatchewan, Sristy Sumana Nath University of Saskatchewan
14:20 - 15:15
Development Approaches, Requirements & Behavioral Software EngineeringTechnical Papers / Journal-first Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Valentina Lenarduzzi LUT University
14:20
15m
Talk
Views on Quality Requirements in Academia and Practice: Commonalities, Differences, and Context-Dependent Grey Areas
Journal-first Papers
Andreas Vogelsang University of Cologne, Jonas Eckhardt Technische Universität München, Daniel Mendez Blekinge Institute of Technology, Moritz Berger University of Bonn
14:35
15m
Research paper
Characteristics and Challenges of Low-Code Development: The Practitioners’ Perspective
Technical Papers
Yajing Luo Wuhan University, Peng Liang Wuhan University, Chong Wang Wuhan University, Mojtaba Shahin RMIT University, Australia, Jing Zhan University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:50
15m
Talk
Towards a Human Values Dashboard for Software Development: An Exploratory Study
Technical Papers
Arif Nurwidyantoro Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Mojtaba Shahin RMIT University, Australia, Michel Chaudron Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, Waqar Hussain Monash University, Harsha Perera Monash University, Rifat Ara Shams Monash University, Jon Whittle CSIRO's Data61 and Monash University
Pre-print Media Attached
15:05
10m
Talk
A Rubric to Identify Misogynistic and Sexist Texts from Software Developer Communications
Emerging Results and Vision papers
Sayma Sultana Wayne State University, Jaydeb Sarker Department of Computer Science, Wayne State University, Amiangshu Bosu Wayne State University
15:30 - 16:00
Defect PredictionTechnical Papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Valentina Lenarduzzi LUT University
15:30
15m
Talk
Continuous Software Bug Prediction
Technical Papers
Song Wang York University, Junjie Wang Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jaechang Nam Handong Global University, Nachiappan Nagappan Facebook
Pre-print
15:45
15m
Talk
An Empirical Examination of the Impact of Bias on Just-in-time Defect Prediction
Technical Papers
Jiri Gesi University of California, Irvine, Jiawei Li University of california, Irvine, Iftekhar Ahmed University of California, Irvine
16:00 - 16:30
Registered ReportsRegistered Reports at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Jeff Carver University of Alabama
16:00
7m
Talk
To VR or not to VR: Is virtual reality suitable to understand software development metrics?
Registered Reports
David Moreno-Lumbreras Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Gregorio Robles Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Daniel Izquierdo Cortazar Bitergia, Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Pre-print
16:07
7m
Talk
Gender Bias in Remote Pair Programming: The twincode exploratory study
Registered Reports
Amador Durán , Pablo Fernandez Universidad de Sevilla, Beatriz Bernárdez Universidad de Sevilla, Nathaniel Weinman UC Berkeley, Aslihan Akalin UC Berkeley, Armando Fox UC Berkeley
Pre-print
16:14
7m
Talk
Adopting Automated Bug Assignment in Practice - A Registered Report of an Industrial Case Study
Registered Reports
Markus Borg RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Leif Jonsson Ericsson AB, Emelie Engstrom Lund University, Bela Bartalos , Attila Szabo
Pre-print
16:21
7m
Talk
Which Design Decisions in AI-enabled Mobile Applications Contribute to Greener AI?
Registered Reports
Roger Creus Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Silverio Martínez-Fernández UPC-BarcelonaTech, Xavier Franch Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Pre-print

Fri 15 Oct

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

14:20 - 15:20
Mining Software RepositoriesTechnical Papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Fabio Calefato University of Bari
14:20
15m
Talk
Characterizing and Predicting Good First Issues
Technical Papers
Yuekai Huang Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Junjie Wang Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Song Wang York University, Zhe Liu Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dandan Wang Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qing Wang Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences
Pre-print
14:35
15m
Talk
An Empirical Study on Refactoring-Inducing Pull Requests
Technical Papers
Flavia Coelho Federal University of Campina Grande, Nikolaos Tsantalis Concordia University, Tiago Massoni Federal University of Campina Grande, Everton L. G. Alves Federal University of Campina Grande
Pre-print Media Attached
14:50
15m
Talk
Promises and Perils of Inferring Personality on GitHub
Technical Papers
Frenk van Mil Delft University of Technology, Ayushi Rastogi University of Groningen, The Netherlands, Andy Zaidman Delft University of Technology
Pre-print Media Attached
15:05
15m
Talk
An Exploratory Study on Dead Methods in Open-source Java Desktop Applications
Technical Papers
Danilo Caivano University of Bari, Pietro Cassieri University of Basilicata, Simone Romano University of Bari, Giuseppe Scanniello University of Basilicata
15:30 - 16:00
Mining Software Repositories & Energy ConsumptionTechnical Papers at ESEM ROOM
Chair(s): Fabio Calefato University of Bari
15:30
15m
Talk
Public Software Development Activity During the Pandemic
Technical Papers
Vanessa Klotzman University of California, Irvine, Farima Farmahinifarahani University of California at Irvine, Crista Lopes University of California, Irvine
15:45
15m
Talk
Evaluating the Impact of Java Virtual Machines on Energy Consumption
Technical Papers
Zakaria Ournani Orange LABS / INRIA / Univ.Lille, Mohammed Chakib Belgaid INRIA, Romain Rouvoy Univ. Lille / Inria / IUF, Pierre Rust Orange labs, Joel Penhoat Orange Labs

Accepted Papers

Title
A comparative study of vulnerability reporting by software composition analysis tools
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
A Model of Software Prototyping based on a Systematic Map
Technical Papers
Media Attached
An Empirical Analysis of Practitioners' Perspectives on Security Tool Integration into DevOps
Technical Papers
Pre-print
An Empirical Examination of the Impact of Bias on Just-in-time Defect Prediction
Technical Papers
An Empirical Study of Rule-Based and Learning-Based Approaches for Static Application Security Testing
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
An Empirical Study on Refactoring-Inducing Pull Requests
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
An Exploratory Study on Dead Methods in Open-source Java Desktop Applications
Technical Papers
A Survey-Based Qualitative Study to Characterize Expectations of Software Developers from Five Stakeholders
Technical Papers
Barriers to Shift-Left Security: The Unique Pain Points of Writing Automated Tests Involving Security Controls
Technical Papers
DOI
Characteristics and Challenges of Low-Code Development: The Practitioners’ Perspective
Technical Papers
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Characterizing and Predicting Good First Issues
Technical Papers
Pre-print
Continuous Software Bug Prediction
Technical Papers
Pre-print
Evaluating the Impact of Java Virtual Machines on Energy Consumption
Technical Papers
Facing the Giant: a Grounded Theory Study of Decision-Making in Microservices Migrations
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
Promises and Perils of Inferring Personality on GitHub
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
Public Software Development Activity During the Pandemic
Technical Papers
Security Smells Pervade Mobile App Servers
Technical Papers
Pre-print
Tackling Consistency-Related Design Challenges of Distributed Data-Intensive Systems – An Action Research Study
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
Testing Smart Contracts: Which Technique Performs Best?
Technical Papers
The Existence and Co-Modifications of Code Clones within or across Microservices
Technical Papers
DOI
Towards a Human Values Dashboard for Software Development: An Exploratory Study
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
What Evidence We would Miss If We Do not Use Grey Literature?
Technical Papers
Pre-print Media Attached
Who are Vulnerability Reporters? A Large-scale Empirical Study on FLOSS
Technical Papers
Pre-print
Why Do Organizations Adopt Agile Scaling Frameworks?— A Survey of Practitioners
Technical Papers

How to Submit

Submissions in this track are limited to 10 pages excluding references and 12 pages with references. Papers must be submitted via EasyChair by selecting the track “Technical Papers”.

All submissions must be written in English and must be submitted via EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esem2021) in the PDF format, and they must be formatted according to the ACM sigconf template, which can be found at ACM Proceedings Template (https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template).

A structured abstract is required with the headings: Background, Aims, Method, Results, and Conclusions. Papers should contain an explicit description of the empirical strategy used or investigated. The submission must also comply with the ACM plagiarism policy and procedures (http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy). In particular, it must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under review elsewhere while under review for ESEM. The submission must also comply with the IEEE Policy on Authorship (http://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/publish-with-ieee/publishing-ethics/).

ESEM 2021 will employ a double-blind review process (except for Journal-First papers and Industry Talks). Thus, regular submissions may not reveal its authors’ identities. The authors must make every effort to honor the double-blind review process. In particular, the authors’ names must be omitted from the submission and references to their prior work should be in the third person. Further advice, guidance, and explanation about the double-blind review process can be found on the conference website.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least three experts from the international program committee of each track and will receive an additional meta-review. Any papers that are outside the scope of the symposium, exceed the maximum number of pages for the respective category, or do not follow the formatting guidelines will be desk rejected without review. ​

Finally, please note that each accepted contribution must have a minimum of one author registered (at the full conference rate) by the deadline for the camera-ready submission for their respective paper type. Also, each paper must be presented by one of the authors. Failure to meet these criteria will result in the paper’s removal from the proceedings. ​