MSR 2026
Mon 13 - Tue 14 April 2026 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
co-located with ICSE 2026

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Dependencies between modules can trigger ripple effects when changes are made, making maintenance complex and costly, so minimizing these dependencies is crucial. Consequently, understanding what drives dependencies is important. One potential factor is code smells, which are symptoms in code that indicate design issues and reduce code quality. When multiple code smells interact through static dependencies, their combined impact on quality can be even more severe. While individual code smells have been widely studied, the influence of their interactions remains underexplored. In this study, we aim to investigate whether and how the distribution of static dependencies changes in the presence of code smell interactions. We conducted a dependency analysis on 116 open-source Java systems to quantify these interactions by comparing cases where code smell interactions exist and where they do not. Our results suggest that overall, code smell interactions are linked to a significant increase in total dependencies in 28 out of 36 cases, and that all code smells are associated with a consistent change direction (increase or decrease) in certain dependency types when interacting with other code smells. Consequently, this information can be used to support more accurate code smell detection and prioritization, as well as to develop more effective refactoring strategies.

Analyzing Dependency Distribution Changes Arising from Code Smell Interactions (Analyzing Dependency Distribution Changes Arising from Code Smell Interactions.pdf)1.99MiB

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Tue 14 Apr

Displayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change

11:00 - 12:30
Session 1-B: Maintenance, Evolution & ProcessesTechnical Papers / MSR Program at Oceania IV
Chair(s): Gregorio Robles Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
11:00
10m
Talk
Source Code Hotspots: A Diagnostic Method for Quality Issues
Technical Papers
Saleha Muzammil University of Virginia, Mughees Ur Rehman Virginia Tech, Zoe Kotti AUEB & DeepSea Technologies, Diomidis Spinellis AUEB & TU Delft
Pre-print
11:10
10m
Talk
The Value of Effective Pull Request Description
Technical Papers
Shirin Pirouzkhah University of Zurich, Pavlina Wurzel Goncalves University of Zurich, Alberto Bacchelli IfI, University of Zurich
Pre-print
11:20
10m
Talk
How do third-party Python libraries use type annotations?
Technical Papers
Eric Asare New York University Abu Dhabi, Sarah Nadi New York University Abu Dhabi
Pre-print
11:30
10m
Talk
Coordination at Scale in Large Distributed Development: The Case of Kubernetes
Technical Papers
Sabrina Aufiero University College London (UCL), Matteo Vaccargiu University of Cagliari, Silvia Bartolucci University College London, Fabio Caccioli University College London (UCL), Giuseppe Destefanis University College London
11:40
10m
Talk
Combining Example-Based and Rule-Based Program Transformations to Resolve Build Conflicts
Technical Papers
Sheikh Shadab Towqir Virginia Tech, Fei He Tsinghua University, Todd Mytkowicz Google, Na Meng Virginia Tech
Pre-print
11:50
10m
Talk
Mining Quantum Software Patterns in Open-Source Projects
Technical Papers
Neilson Carlos Leite Ramalho Universidade de São Paulo, Erico Augusto Da Silva Universidade de São Paulo, Higor Amario de Souza University of São Paulo, Marcos Lordello Chaim University of São Paulo
12:00
10m
Talk
Analyzing Dependency Distribution Changes Arising from Code Smell InteractionsVirtual Attendance
Technical Papers
Zushuai Zhang University of Auckland, Elliott Wen , Ewan Tempero The University of Auckland
Pre-print Media Attached File Attached
12:10
10m
Talk
Evolving Kubernetes: A Technical Debt Perspective
Technical Papers
Jesse Maarleveld University of Groningen, Giuseppe Destefanis University College London, Daniel Feitosa University of Groningen
12:20
10m
Talk
Secret Leak Detection in Software Issue Reports using LLMs: A Comprehensive Evaluation
Technical Papers
Sadif Ahmed Bangladesh University of Engineering and Techonology, Md Nafiu Rahman Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Zahin Wahab The University of British Columbia, Gias Uddin York University, Canada, Rifat Shahriyar Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh
Pre-print Media Attached File Attached
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