Community engagement and the lifespan of open-source software projects

IF 4.3 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-10-15 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107914

Mohit, Kuljit Kaur Chahal

{"title":"Community engagement and the lifespan of open-source software projects","authors":"Mohit, Kuljit Kaur Chahal","doi":"10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107914","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Context:</h3><div>Open-source software (OSS) projects depend on community engagement (CE) for longevity. However, CE’s quantifiable impact on project dynamics and lifespan is underexplored.</div></div><div><h3>Objectives:</h3><div>This study defines CE in OSS, identifies key metrics, and evaluates their influence on project dynamics (releases, commits, branches) and lifespan.</div></div><div><h3>Methods:</h3><div>We analyzed 33,946 GitHub repositories, defining and operationalizing CE with validated per-month metrics (issues, comments, watchers, stargazers). Non-parametric tests and correlations assessed relationships with project dynamics and lifespan across quartiles.</div></div><div><h3>Results:</h3><div>CE metrics significantly associate with project dynamics, with stronger correlations in highly engaged projects. For lifespan, a complex pattern emerged: per-month CE rates are highest in younger projects, declining with age. Yet, a subset of long-lived projects maintains exceptionally high activity. Initial CE bursts appear crucial for establishment, while sustained high engagement drives extreme longevity. Active issue engagement’s influence intensifies with age, but passive attention’s declines.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion:</h3><div>CE dynamically drives OSS project longevity and development. Our findings establish validated CE metrics and offer deeper insights into how diverse community activity patterns contribute to project longevity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54983,"journal":{"name":"Information and Software Technology","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 107914"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information and Software Technology","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584925002538","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context:

Open-source software (OSS) projects depend on community engagement (CE) for longevity. However, CE’s quantifiable impact on project dynamics and lifespan is underexplored.

Objectives:

This study defines CE in OSS, identifies key metrics, and evaluates their influence on project dynamics (releases, commits, branches) and lifespan.

Methods:

We analyzed 33,946 GitHub repositories, defining and operationalizing CE with validated per-month metrics (issues, comments, watchers, stargazers). Non-parametric tests and correlations assessed relationships with project dynamics and lifespan across quartiles.

Results:

CE metrics significantly associate with project dynamics, with stronger correlations in highly engaged projects. For lifespan, a complex pattern emerged: per-month CE rates are highest in younger projects, declining with age. Yet, a subset of long-lived projects maintains exceptionally high activity. Initial CE bursts appear crucial for establishment, while sustained high engagement drives extreme longevity. Active issue engagement’s influence intensifies with age, but passive attention’s declines.

Conclusion:

CE dynamically drives OSS project longevity and development. Our findings establish validated CE metrics and offer deeper insights into how diverse community activity patterns contribute to project longevity.

查看原文本刊更多论文

社区参与和开源软件项目的生命周期

背景：开源软件（OSS）项目的寿命依赖于社区参与（CE）。然而，CE对项目动态和寿命的可量化影响尚未得到充分探索。目标：本研究定义了OSS中的CE，确定了关键指标，并评估了它们对项目动态（发布、提交、分支）和生命周期的影响。方法：我们分析了33,946个GitHub存储库，使用经过验证的每月指标（问题、评论、观察者、观星者）定义和操作CE。非参数测试和相关性评估了项目动态和四分位数寿命之间的关系。结果：CE度量与项目动态显著相关，在高度参与的项目中具有更强的相关性。对于生命周期，出现了一个复杂的模式：每月CE率在较年轻的项目中最高，随着年龄的增长而下降。然而，长寿命项目的子集保持着异常高的活跃性。最初的用户体验爆发对于游戏的建立至关重要，而持续的高用户粘性则会推动游戏的持久发展。随着年龄的增长，积极参与问题的影响力会增强，而被动关注的影响力会下降。结论：CE动态地推动OSS项目的寿命和发展。我们的发现建立了有效的CE指标，并提供了更深入的见解，了解不同的社区活动模式如何对项目寿命做出贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.