Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Information Systems

Software Engineering Research

Software Engineering Research is a research topic within Information Systems. Science Explorer counts 50k research works in it since 1957. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on empirical studies in software engineering, covering topics such as refactoring, code clone detection, software defect prediction, requirements traceability, static code attributes, machine learning, software maintenance, source code analysis, bug localization, and API usage patterns.

  • Refactoring
  • Code Clone Detection
  • Software Defect Prediction
  • Requirements Traceability
  • Static Code Attributes
  • Machine Learning
  • Software Maintenance
  • Source Code Analysis
  • Bug Localization
  • API Usage Patterns
Research works
50k
fractional, since 1957
In the world top 10%
5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
27% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Software Engineering Research

Which countries lead Software Engineering Research research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.7k and 1.5k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.7k works
  2. 2 United States 1.5k works
  3. 3 India 852 works
  4. 4 Germany 537 works
  5. 5 Brazil 391 works
  6. 6 Canada 384 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 284 works
  8. 8 Italy 238 works
  9. 9 Japan 183 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 180 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 26.7%United States: 24.7%India: 13.6%Germany: 8.6%6 others listed: 26.5%27%largest
China1,673 · 26.7%United States1,548 · 24.7%India852 · 13.6%Germany537 · 8.6%6 others listed1,659 · 26.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Software Engineering Research research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Software Engineering Research research, followed by Nanjing University and Carnegie Mellon University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 81 works
  2. 2 Nanjing UniversityChina 74 works
  3. 3 Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 52 works
  4. 4 Beihang UniversityChina 51 works
  5. 5 Peking UniversityChina 50 works
  6. 6 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 48 works
  7. 7 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 47 works
  8. 8 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 45 works
  9. 9 Singapore Management UniversitySingapore 42 works
  10. 10 North Carolina State UniversityUnited States 37 works

Who are the leading researchers in Software Engineering Research?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Software Engineering Research include Yoshua Bengio, Xiangyu Zhang and Xiaogang Wang.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Xiangyu Zhang 327k citations
  3. 3 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  4. 4 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations
  5. 5 Peter M. Bentler United States 233k citations
  6. 6 Kai You Wang China 224k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Software Engineering Research?

The most cited paper in Software Engineering Research is "Harvard Business Review" (J. Scott Armstrong, David M. Georgoff, 1988), with 18,225 citations. Next come "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots" (6,615) and "Graph drawing by force‐directed placement" (6,481).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Harvard Business Review J. Scott Armstrong, David M. Georgoff · International Journal of Forecasting 1988 18,225
2 On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major et al. Conference paperOpen access Mar 2021 6,615
3 Graph drawing by force‐directed placement Thomas M. J. Fruchterman, Edward M. Reingold · Software Practice and Experience Nov 1991 6,481
4 A Complexity Measure Thomas J. McCabe · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Dec 1976 5,923
5 A metrics suite for object oriented design Shyam R. Chidamber, Chris F. Kemerer · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Open access Jun 1994 5,691
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Software Engineering Research research done?

The largest centres of Software Engineering Research research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Shanghai (China) and Montreal (Canada). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Karlskrona, Lugano and Redmond.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 392 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 152 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 116 works
  4. 4 MontrealCanada 106 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 97 works
  6. 6 LondonUnited Kingdom 94 works
  7. 7 SingaporeSingapore 87 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 83 works
  9. 9 New DelhiIndia 71 works
  10. 10 ChangshaChina 70 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KarlskronaSE · 26.7 works97×
  2. LuganoCH · 26.5 works28×
  3. RedmondUS · 20.3 works23×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Software Engineering Research than the world average.

See Software Engineering Research on the map

Where is the best place to study Software Engineering Research?

Among universities, judged by research, Singapore Management University, Monash University and Nanjing University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.41%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Monash UniversityNanyang Technologica…Singapore Management…Nanjing University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Singapore Management UniversitySingapore 85.525.4%49.2×42 +42.3%
2Monash UniversityAustralia 69.833.1%4.3×34 -12.6%
3Nanjing UniversityChina 69.113.5%9.8×74 +51.8%
4Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 66.726.5%3.3×21 +43.9%
5Peking UniversityChina 66.518.8%3.0×50 +23.1%
6Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 64.815.9%5.7×19 +112.9%
7Chinese University of Hong KongChina 64.237.3%1.6×9 +75.4%
8Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 63.420.3%15.3×52 -43.8%
9Università della Svizzera italianaSwitzerland 63.213.0%38.6×26 +20.5%
10University of LuxembourgLuxembourg 60.220.3%11.9×23 -9.9%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Software Engineering Research, country by country

Is Software Engineering Research research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Software Engineering Research.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Software Engineering Research as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.035% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Software Engineering Research0.036% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Software Engineering Research over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Software Engineering Research9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Software Engineering Research. Keep it to the research: no personal attacks, advertising or links. Any reader can report a post, which collapses it for everyone until it is opened.