We had originally submitted a much more detailed analysis to ICSE 2009. Unfortunately, the submission got rejected, and even the referenced four-pager almost didn’t make it. This is because, as one reviewer put it, “this work has no merit, because it only measures [open source projects].” This comment still annoys me, because of its warped understanding of science. What are we supposed to do, if not measure the real world? Freely phantasize about how software development works? Next time you hear some wild claims about how software development supposedly works, please ask the presenter what data or studies they base their work on.

The Sweet Spot of Code Commenting in Open Source