Listen to this interview of Justus Bogner, Assistant Professor, Software and Sustainability Group, Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands. We talk about his coauthored papers Do RESTful API design rules have an impact on the understandability of Web APIs? (EMSE 2023) and RESTRuler: Towards Automatically Identifying Violations of RESTful Design Rules in Web APIs (ICSA 2024). Download this screenshot of the ICSA paper. In the screenshot, you see blue highlighting that matches content portrayed by...

Listen to this interview of Gilles Perrouin, FNRS Research Associate, University of Namur, Belgium. We talk about the community focused around research in systems variability. Gilles Perrouin : "If a community want a research topic to live — even thrive — over time, then it's a must that new PhD students be attracted to that research.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Markus Funke, PhD Candidate in the Software and Sustainability Group, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. We talk about his coauthored paper Carving Sustainability into Architecture Knowledge Practice (ECSA 2023). Markus Funke : "I find that one excellent way for avoiding unnecessary repetition in the text is to use the opening of each section or subsection to state plainly what you're going to do and why you’re going to do it that way — because then you can...

The Association of University Presses (AUPresses), a global organization of 161 mission-driven publishers, is proud to announce a collection of 123 books, journals, and projects that embody the #StepUP theme of this year’s University Press Week, happening Nov. 11 to 15. The featured publications, curated by AUPresses members in 12 countries, present thought-provoking concepts, new points of view, and inspiring ideas, many of which advocate for social change. For a complete list of UP Week...

Listen to this interview of Michael Felderer, Director of the Institute of Software Technology, German Aerospace Center; and also, Professor of Computer Science, University of Cologne, Germany. We talk about those interdependencies between science and engineering which make the base of software research. Michael Felderer : "When preparing your manuscript for submission, try to imagine reviewers’ expectations — really imagine, for example, what you would expect if you were the reviewer. So...

Listen to this interview of Javier Cámara and Lola Burgueño — both Associate Professors, ITIS Software, University of Málaga, Spain. We talk about their coauthored paper On the assessment of generative AI in modeling tasks: an experience report with ChatGPT and UML (SoSyM 2023). Lola Burgueño : "Yes, we're definitely pleased that we went for a timely piece like the Expert Voice at SoSyM — because after seeing how we've reached people and seeing, too, how people are citing the paper, we think...

Listen to this interview of Georgios Bouloukakis, Associate Professor at Télécom SudParis / Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France. We talk about the community in middleware systems research, and in particular, about the distinguishing marks of a top contribution in that field. Georgios Bouloukakis : "You know, what’s so impressive about the PerCom conference and all such high-quality conferences — it’s this whole set of people, the PC members and the organizing committee — everyone working...

Listen to this interview of Paul Gazzillo, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Central Florida. We talk about peer reviewing at conferences versus journals, and we talk about how different venues define research problems differently. Paul Gazzillo : "One important purpose of scientific publication is novel contributions. And so, applying logic to that, you can disprove that something's a contribution by demonstrating that it's unsound. But as to novelty — well, it's very...

Listen to this interview of Gabriela Michelon, Software Engineer and Project Manager for AI-driven Product Development at Marquardt Group, Germany. We talk about the career path for software engineers, and we talk, too, about how the gap might be closed between research and practice. Gabriela Michelon : "When a company has a research program for PhDs, it’s an empowered way of showing just how the company values the research and as well, researcher efforts. That way, the company really shows...

Who controls what is taught in American universities – professors or politicians? The answer is far from clear but suddenly urgent. Unprecedented efforts are now underway to restrict what ideas can be promoted and discussed in university classrooms. Professors at public universities have long assumed that their freedom to teach is unassailable and that there were firm constitutional protections shielding them from political interventions. Those assumptions might always have been more hopeful...

Listen to this interview of Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor, Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about his coauthored paper Continuous Conformance of Software Architectures (ICSA 2024). Alessio Bucaioni : "Yeah, I agree: A plethora of definitions for the same thing or concept may very well slow down progress in the research. And actually, I think that this issue is peculiar to software engineering, perhaps computer science more generally — because if you think about the branches of...

Listen to this interview of Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor, Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about his coauthored paper Technical Architectures for Automotive Systems (ICSA 2020). Alessio Bucaioni : "For Conclusion sections, I like to cater to a reader approaching our paper who’s pressed for time. So, that means, I want to enable this reader to understand our work just by reading the Abstract, the Introduction, and the Conclusion. So, I try to get the Conclusion to bond well with...

Listen to this interview of Enxhi Ferko, PhD student, and Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor — both at Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about their coauthored paper Standardisation in Digital Twin Architectures in Manufacturing (ICSA 2023). Enxhi Ferko : "What really pleases me about this study is, sure, our contributions have proven interesting and useful to both academics and practitioners. But we were happy to reach, as well, even a third group of stakeholders, namely, the people...

Listen to this interview of Dimitrios Tsoukalas, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Information Technologies Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece; and Alexander Chatzigeorgiou, Professor and Vice Rector, University of Macedonia, Greece. We talk about their two coauthored papers, Machine Learning for Technical Debt Identification, and Local and Global Explainability for Technical Debt Identification. Alexander Chatzigeorgiou : "I think that it is important in...

Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023), by Johns Hopkins University instructor Jamie Zvirzdin, is a guide for writing about science—from the subatomic level up!  Subatomic Writing teaches that the building blocks of language are like particles in physics. These particles, combined and arranged, form something greater than their parts: all matter in the literary universe. This interdisciplinary approach helps scientists, science writers, and...

Listen to this interview of Jacob Krüger, Assistant Professor for Software Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. We talk about peer review in software engineering — what it is, and what it might be. Jacob Krüger : "When you submit to broad-themed conferences like ICSE or FSE, you cannot assume much background knowledge on individual tools or techniques which are really, let’s say, the standard in your home community. Because, to succeed as such conferences as...

Listen to this interview of Carolyn Seaman, Professor of Information Systems, and also, Director of the Center for Women in Technology, at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. We talk about how peer review is conducted at the venues of software engineering. Carolyn Seaman : "English language skills is one thing — but really, the English is just the final layer on your research, because you also need the ability to organize your thoughts, the ability to collaborate with a group of...

Listen to this interview of Klaus Schmid, Professor of Software Engineering, Research Group Software Systems Engineering, University of Hildesheim, Germany. We talk about how research cultures influence and shape research outcomes. Klaus Schmid : "Research writing is an act of communication. This means, the writer is responsible for the mental model that the reader develops as a result of what the text provides. It is, of course, true that no writer can entirely predict the mental model being...

Listen to this interview of Tim Menzies, Editor in Chief, Automated Software Engineering, and also, Full Professor, Computer Science, North Carolina State University. We talk about how disagreement in research brings advancement. Tim Menzies : "In writing your research, you can't belligerently say, 'I want to say something.' The thing that goes wrong with newbies writing papers is that they write, 'I did. I did. I did.' Because, the people who publish very well, they write, 'They did. They...

Academic writing isn’t known for its clarity. While graduate students might see reading and writing turgid academic prose as a badge of honor—a sign of membership in an exclusive community of experts—many readers are left feeling utterly defeated.  In his latest book, Academic Writing as if Readers Matter (Princeton University Press, 2024), Fordham University Professor Leonard Cassuto prompts us to think more about the reader. For Cassuto, the key to better academic prose is to anticipate and...

Listen to this interview of Guilherme Horta Travassos, Systems Engineering and Computer Science Graduate Program, Coppe, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We talk about the review process, both at Information and Software Technology and also more broadly throughout the software-engineering community. Guilherme Horta Travassos : "The review process is hard, because there is the author’s perspective, and there is the reviewer’s perspective, and these perspectives must become a...

Listen to this interview of Jo Van Bulck, Assistant Professor in the DistriNet Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium. We talk about the paper LVI: Hijacking Transient Execution through Microarchitectural Load Value Injection (S&P 2020). Jo Van Bulck : "For me, this paper is a good example of how just by thinking, we researchers can attain to insights. This is not a paper where we came across something by doing it. No, it was really about thinking, and then coming up with an idea, and then...

Filling a gap in the literature, Inclusive Cataloging: Histories, Context, and Reparative Approaches (ALA Editions and Core, 2024) provides librarians and catalogers with practical approaches to reparative cataloging as well as a broader understanding of the topic and its place in the technical services landscape. As part of the profession's ongoing EDISJ efforts to redress librarianship’s problematic past, practitioners from across the field are questioning long-held library authorities and...

Listen to this interview of Paul Ralph, Professor, Dalhousie University, Canada. We talk about what's wrong with peer review — and how to fix it! Paul Ralph : "We don't want reviewers micromanaging style, complaining about the way the study is written. No, what we want — and need — is for reviewers to focus on the methodological details of the study: Was it done well? Are the results likely to be true?" For more, see Empirical Standards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...