Description
Large-scale software projects are interesting examples of human-made complex systems. The complexity of these systems can be reflected both in their structures and in their development processes. Due to the wide adoption of open source practices using online infrastructures, both the software development process and the final software structure can be traced in an easy way. Thus, a large-scale data set about software projects can be obtained, making an in-depth study of software projects possible.
During the last decade, complex networks have been widely applied to analyze the topological structure and dynamics of software projects. Many shared physics-like laws of such software projects—such as scale-free, small-world, and fractal properties—have been revealed.
The objective of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive collection of cutting edge research work on the application of complex network theory, and techniques to explore software projects. Original research articles presenting novel in-depth fundamental research are welcomed, along with review articles discussing the current state of the art.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Analysis of software architectures from a complex network perspective
- Models for the growth and evolution of software structures
- Analysis of developer-user relations in open source software communities
- Analysis of bug dependency networks
- Network-based software metrics and their use to assist developers
- Network-based prediction of software quality or process problems (e.g., software defects, modularity, stability, etc.)
Note that the objective of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive collection of cutting edge research work on the application of complex network theory, and techniques to explore software projects, that is, we focus on the research work on software networks. Thus, in this SI, all the accepted paper should talk about their relationships to software network research. The references listed below should be cited and discussed in the related work Section.
There is a list of papers on Software Networks that can be referenced
- Weifeng Pan, Hua Ming, Carl K. Chang, Zijiang Yang, Dae-Kyoo Kim. ElementRank: Ranking Java Software Classes and Packages using Multilayer Complex Network-Based Approach. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2019, DOI: 10.1109/TSE.2019.2946357 (SCI, JCR Q1, 软件工程顶级期刊, CCF A类国际期刊) [PDF] [Data & Code]
- Weifeng Pan, Chunlai Chai. Structure-Aware Mashup Service Clustering for Cloud-based Internet of Things Using Genetic Algorithm based Clustering Algorithm. Future Generation Computer Systems, 2018, 87: 267-277. (SCI, JCR Q1, 中科院2区, CCF C类国际期刊) [PDF]
- Weifeng Pan, Bing Li, Jing Liu, Yutao Ma, Bo Hu. Analyzing the structure of Java software systems by weighted k-core decomposition. Future Generation Computer Systems, 2018, 83: 431-444. (SCI, JCR Q1, 中科院2区, CCF C类国际期刊) [PDF]
- Weifeng Pan, Beibei Song, Kangshun Li, Kejun Zhang. Identifying Key Classes in Object-Oriented Software using Generalized k-Core Decomposition. Future Generation Computer Systems, 2018, 81: 188-202. (SCI, JCR Q1, 中科院2区, CCF C类国际期刊) [PDF]
- Weifeng Pan, Chunlai Chai. Measuring Software Stability based on Complex Networks in Software. Cluster Computing, 2019, 22(2): s2589–s2598. (SCI, CCF C类国际期刊) [PDF]
- Weifeng Pan, Haibo Jiang, Hua Ming, Chunlai Chai, Bi Chen, Hao Li. Characterizing software stability via change propagation simulation. Complexity, 2019, 2019: 9414162. (SCI, 中科院2区) [PDF] [Data & Code]
- Weifeng Pan, Jilei Dong, Kun Liu, Jing Wang. Topology and topic-aware service clustering. International Journal of Web Services Research, 2018, 15(3): 18-37. (SCI, JCR Q4, 服务计算领域著名期刊) [PDF]
- Weifeng Pan, Bo Hu, Jilei Dong, Kun Liu, Bo Jiang. Structural properties of multilayer software networks: A case study in Tomcat. Advances in Complex Systems, 2018, 21(02): 1850004, DOI: 10.1142/S0219525918500042. (SCI, 复杂网络领域著名期刊) [PDF]