On the need for human-based empirical validation of techniques and tools for code clone analysis

Abstract

Code clone analysis techniques and tools are popular topics among the software engineering research community. Many studies draw conclusions solely based on an analytical analysis. These claims focus primarily on tool performance in terms of portability, scalability, robustness, precision, and recall. However, these types of analytical studies cannot adequately evaluate the behavior of the developers while using the tools. Human-based empirical studies are complementary to studies based on analytical data because they provide direct insight into developer behavior. In this paper we argue for the need for more humanbased empirical studies in the area of code clone analysis techniques and tools.