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CALL FOR PAPERS

for a topical issue in

ADVANCES IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Structure and Dynamics of Collaborative Software Engineering:
A Complex Networks Perspective

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GUEST EDITORS

Marcelo Cataldo
Bosch Corporate Research, USA
marcelo.cataldo@us.bosch.com

Ingo Scholtes
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
ischoltes@ethz.ch

Frank Schweitzer
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
fschweitzer@ethz.ch

Giuseppe Valetto
Drexel University, USA
valetto@cs.drexel.edu

INTRODUCTION

Large collaborative software engineering projects are
interesting examples for evolving complex systems. The complexity
of these systems unfolds both in evolving software structures, as
well as in the social dynamics and organization of development
teams. Due to the increasing adoption of Open Source practices and
the use of open online support infrastructures, large-scale data on
the social and technical dimensions of complexity in collaborative
software engineering projects are increasingly becoming available.

During the last decade, the perspective of complex networks has
increasingly been adopted in the study of the structure and
dynamics of software projects. With this topical issue, we intend
to give a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art research that
studies software engineering processes from the perspective of
complex networks. The ongoing research efforts in this field
highlight an interesting interdisciplinary research area where
abstractions and methods from the theory of complex systems and
complex networks can be applied.

The non-exclusive list of topics of interest for this topical issue
of ACS is structured along the following three research strands.

o SOCIAL DIMENSION OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
- Empirical analysis of collaboration and communication structures in
Open Source Software communities
- Network studies on division of labor, centralization and other
aspects of social organization in developer teams
- Studies of the evolution of social structures, particularly in phases
of growth and distress
- Impact of turnover on communication and collaboration topologies
- Studies of developer-user relations in OSS communities
- Use of social network structures in support infrastructures like bug
tracking platforms or developer assistance tools
- Network-based identification of coordination requirements in
developer teams
- Influence of social network structures on individual and collective
performance in Open Source communities

o TECHNICAL DIMENSION OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
- Analysis of software architectures from a network perspective like e.g.
class and module dependencies, inheritance hierarchies, etc.
- Analysis of bug and package dependency networks
- Models for the growth and evolution of software structures
- Network perspectives on modularity in software architectures
- Network-based software metrics and their use to assist developers
- Network-based prediction of software quality or process problems
(e.g. software defects, coordination needs, etc.)

o SOCIO-TECHNICAL DIMENSION OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
- Co-evolution of software structures and social organization in software
engineering projects
- Impact of social organization on software architectures
- Impact of software architectures on the social organization of
development teams
- Prediction of software development outcomes (e.g. productivity, defects,
bug triaging, etc.) based on software and work dependencies

In all of the areas mentioned above, we solicit both theoretical
and empirical work, as well as quantitative case studies which
illustrate the use of complex networks and complex systems approaches
in practical software engineering projects.

GUIDELINE FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Advances in complex systems is a journal devoted to multidisciplinary
approaches, either empirical or theoretical, to the study of complex
systems. It is committed to the highest scientific standards. Research
articles will be peer-reviewed and selected articles will be published
in a topical issue that will contain about 12 papers. The papers chosen
by the guest editors have to be a selection with high quality and
originality and not already published elsewhere. Prospective authors
should pay full attention to the "Guideline for Contributors" which
are available at

http://www.worldscinet.com/acs/mkt/guidelines.shtml

in particular to

(1) Classification of Manuscripts, and
(2) Comprehensibility of Manuscripts.

If you are in doubt about the suitability of your contribution,
you are invited to contact the guest editors.

Formatting instructions, BibTeX and LaTeX style files, as well as
further information on the online manuscript submission and
tracking system are available in the "Guideline for Contributors".