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Ethical issues in empirical studies of software engineering

2002· article· en· 190 citations· W2105246013 on OpenAlex· 10.1109/tse.2002.1158289

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stratum: fund_new · design weight: 1678.90 (the sample is stratified; any rate computed without the weight is wrong)
Claude Opus 4.8T1
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: high

Article on the ethical issues raised by empirical research methods in software engineering; the object is research conduct and integrity in an empirical research literature.

GPT-5.6 (high)T1
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: high

It directly examines ethical issues in empirical software-engineering research.

Grok 4.5T1
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: high

Primary object is ethics of empirical software engineering research methods and human-subjects research practice.

Abstract

The popularity of empirical methods in software engineering research is on the rise. Surveys, experiments, metrics, case studies, and field studies are examples of empirical methods used to investigate both software engineering processes and products. The increased application of empirical methods has also brought about an increase in discussions about adapting these methods to the peculiarities of software engineering. In contrast, the ethical issues raised by empirical methods have received little, if any, attention in the software engineering literature. This article is intended to introduce the ethical issues raised by empirical research to the software engineering research community and to stimulate discussion of how best to deal with these ethical issues. Through a review of the ethical codes of several fields that commonly employ humans and artifacts as research subjects, we have identified major ethical issues relevant to empirical studies of software engineering. These issues are illustrated with real empirical studies of software engineering.

Stored with the screening record, where it is evidence for the labels above.

The record

Venue
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Topic
Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
Field
Computer Science
Canadian institutions
Funders
National Health and Medical Research CouncilMedical Research CouncilNational Research Council CanadaU.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesNational Institutes of HealthPublic Works and Government Services CanadaCanadian Psychological Association
Keywords
Empirical researchComputer scienceSocial software engineeringSoftware engineeringPopularitySoftware Engineering Process GroupSoftware developmentSoftware requirementsSoftware peer reviewPersonal software processSoftwareManagement scienceData scienceSoftware constructionEngineering ethicsEngineering
Has abstract in OpenAlex
yes