A systematic mapping study of developer social network research

Developer social networks (DSNs) are a tool for the analysis of community structures and collaborations between developers in software projects ecosystems. Within this paper, we present results systematic mapping study on use DSNs engineering research. We identified 255 primary studies DSNs. mapped to research directions, collected information about data sources size studies, conducted bibliometric assessment. found that nearly half investigates structure developer communities. Other frequent topics prediction systems build using DSNs, collaboration behavior developers, roles developers. Moreover, determined many publications small sample regarding number projects, which could be problematic external validity Our uncovered several open issues state art, e.g., studying inter-company collaborations, multiple DSN research, as well general lack reporting guidelines or replication studies.