Aims and scope

Empirical Software Engineering provides a forum for applied software engineering research with a strong empirical component.

Over the last decade, it has become clear that empirical studies are a fundamental component of software engineering research and practice: Software development practices and technologies must be investigated by empirical means in order to be understood, evaluated, and deployed in proper contexts. This stems from the observation that higher software quality and productivity is more likely to be achieved if well-understood, tested practices and technologies are introduced in software development.

Reported empirical studies usually involve the collection and analysis of data and experience that can be used to characterize, evaluate and reveal relationships between software development deliverables, practices, and technologies. Over time, it is expected that such empirical results will form a body of knowledge leading to widely accepted and well-formed theories.

Empirical Software Engineering aims at promoting the publication of industry-relevant research since one of its goals is to address the significant gap between research and practice.

Research Articles

Both original and replicated studies can be reported, varying from controlled experiments to field studies, from data intensive to qualitative. Preference is given to studies that can be replicated or expanded upon. Papers on the infrastructure for supporting empirical research are also of interest.

Specific topics relevant to the journal include the following:

Analysis and design
Model-driven development
Requirements engineering
Verification and validation
Maintenance and evolution
Quality assurance
Dependability analysis
Project management
Organization models for software development
Predictive models for software dependability
Software engineering economics
Applications of artificial intelligence techniques to software engineering
Qualitative analysis