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Why Developers Refactor Source Code

https://doi.org/10.1145/3408302
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What this work says

Outgoing claims: the papers this work cites, builds on, or argues with.

inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.1958openalex-snapshot
A comprehensive model for code readability
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85279-7_20openalex-snapshot
A Case Study on the Impact of Refactoring on Quality and Productivity in an Agile Team
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-012-9214-zopenalex-snapshot
How changes affect software entropy: an empirical study
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-012-9226-8openalex-snapshot
Using structural and semantic measures to improve software modularization
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-013-9256-xopenalex-snapshot
Automating extract class refactoring: an improved method and its evaluation
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-017-9535-zopenalex-snapshot
On the diffuseness and the impact on maintainability of code smells: a large scale empirical investigation
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-011-9172-5openalex-snapshot
Static correspondence and correlation between field defects and warnings reported by a bug finding tool
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0031-2openalex-snapshot
Effective identifier names for comprehension and memory
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-800160-8.00004-8openalex-snapshot
Anti-Pattern Detection
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2006.10.017openalex-snapshot
Semantic clustering: Identifying topics in source code
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2009.04.002openalex-snapshot
Empirical investigation of refactoring effect on software quality
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2008.06.035openalex-snapshot
Exception handling refactorings: Directed by goals and driven by bug fixing
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2015.05.024openalex-snapshot
An experimental investigation on the innate relationship between quality and refactoring
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2019.05.002openalex-snapshot
A large-scale empirical exploration on refactoring activities in open source software projects
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1023/b:sqjo.0000039793.31052.72openalex-snapshot
Detection of Redundant Code Using R 2 D 2
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/32.295895openalex-snapshot
A metrics suite for object oriented design
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/ase.2009.62openalex-snapshot
Improving API Usage through Automatic Detection of Redundant Code
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/csmr.2013.28openalex-snapshot
A New Family of Software Anti-patterns: Linguistic Anti-patterns
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icpc.2006.51openalex-snapshot
Whats in a Name? A Study of Identifiers
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icse.2007.66openalex-snapshot
Predicting Faults from Cached History
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icse.2013.6606615openalex-snapshot
An empirical study on the developers' perception of software coupling
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icse.2017.14openalex-snapshot
Clone Refactoring with Lambda Expressions
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icse.2019.00021openalex-snapshot
On Learning Meaningful Code Changes Via Neural Machine Translation
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icse.2019.00110openalex-snapshot
Test-Driven Code Review: An Empirical Study
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icsm.2003.1235403openalex-snapshot
Populating a Release History Database from version control and bug tracking systems
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icsm.2005.89openalex-snapshot
The conceptual cohesion of classes
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icsm.2009.5306290openalex-snapshot
What motivate software engineers to refactor source code? evidences from professional developers
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icsm.2011.6080778openalex-snapshot
Expanding identifiers to normalize source code vocabulary
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/icsm.2012.6405309openalex-snapshot
Supervised software modularisation
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2011.1openalex-snapshot
A Refactoring Approach to Parallelism
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/saner.2019.8668012openalex-snapshot
Are Refactorings to Blame? An Empirical Study of Refactorings in Merge Conflicts
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/scam.2006.31openalex-snapshot
Syntactic Identifier Conciseness and Consistency
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/scam.2012.20openalex-snapshot
When Does a Refactoring Induce Bugs? An Empirical Study
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/scam.2014.18openalex-snapshot
Bulk Fixing Coding Issues and Its Effects on Software Quality: Is It Worth Refactoring?
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/scam.2017.17openalex-snapshot
Investigating the Use of Code Analysis and NLP to Promote a Consistent Usage of Identifiers
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tevc.2017.2691281openalex-snapshot
An Empirical Study of Cohesion and Coupling: Balancing Optimization and Disruption
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2007.70732openalex-snapshot
Hierarchical Clustering for Software Architecture Recovery
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2007.70768openalex-snapshot
Using the Conceptual Cohesion of Classes for Fault Prediction in Object-Oriented Systems
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2009.1openalex-snapshot
Identification of Move Method Refactoring Opportunities
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2009.50openalex-snapshot
DECOR: A Method for the Specification and Detection of Code and Design Smells
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2009.70openalex-snapshot
Learning a Metric for Code Readability
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2010.26openalex-snapshot
Software Module Clustering as a Multi-Objective Search Problem
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2011.41openalex-snapshot
How We Refactor, and How We Know It
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2014.2318734openalex-snapshot
An Empirical Study of RefactoringChallenges and Benefits at Microsoft
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2017.2653105openalex-snapshot
When and Why Your Code Starts to Smell Bad (and Whether the Smells Go Away)
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/wcre.1999.806964openalex-snapshot
Experiments with clustering as a software remodularization method
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/wosq.2007.11openalex-snapshot
Refactoring--Does It Improve Software Quality?
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1109/wpc.2005.14openalex-snapshot
Concise and Consistent Naming
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/1137983.1138014openalex-snapshot
Tracking defect warnings across versions
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/1287624.1287633openalex-snapshot
Which warnings should I fix first?
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/1368088.1368114openalex-snapshot
A comparative analysis of the efficiency of change metrics and static code attributes for defect prediction
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/1463788.1463819openalex-snapshot
Is it a bug or an enhancement?
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/1985793.1985989openalex-snapshot
JDeodorant
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2304696.2304704openalex-snapshot
Antipattern-based model refactoring for software performance improvement
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2384616.2384634openalex-snapshot
Refactoring android Java code for on-demand computation offloading
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2393596.2393655openalex-snapshot
A field study of refactoring challenges and benefits
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2398857.2384634openalex-snapshot
Refactoring android Java code for on-demand computation offloading
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2635868.2635883openalex-snapshot
Learning natural coding conventions
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2635868.2635922openalex-snapshot
A large scale study of programming languages and code quality in github
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/2950290.2950305openalex-snapshot
Why we refactor? confessions of GitHub contributors
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3106237.3106259openalex-snapshot
Understanding the impact of refactoring on smells: a longitudinal study of 23 software projects
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3131151.3131171openalex-snapshot
How does refactoring affect internal quality attributes?
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3180155.3180206openalex-snapshot
Accurate and efficient refactoring detection in commit history
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3196321.3196347openalex-snapshot
The effect of poor source code lexicon and readability on developers' cognitive load
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3196321.3196365openalex-snapshot
Towards just-in-time refactoring recommenders
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3242163.3242169openalex-snapshot
An empirical investigation of how and why developers rename identifiers
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.1145/3290353openalex-snapshot
code2vec: learning distributed representations of code
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01openalex-snapshot
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4
inferredcites →https://doi.org/10.5555/2337223.2337461openalex-snapshot
Using structural and semantic information to support software refactoring

What points at this work

Incoming claims: where this work appears in other papers’ reference lists and arguments.

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Behind the scenes: On the relationship between developer experience and refactoring
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1002/smr.2530openalex-snapshot
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“To Clean Code or Not to Clean Code” A Survey Among Practitioners
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Generative AI for Code Development: Advancements, Limitations, and Prospects
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Characterizing refactoring graphs in Java and JavaScript projects
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How do i refactor this? An empirical study on refactoring trends and topics in Stack Overflow
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What really changes when developers intend to improve their source code: a commit-level study of static metric value and static analysis warning changes
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A qualitative study on refactorings induced by code review
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A mixed-method in-depth study of test-specific refactorings
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A comprehensive catalog of refactoring strategies to handle test smells in Java-based systems
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Machine Learning-Based Exploration of the Impact of Move Method Refactoring on Object-Oriented Software Quality Attributes
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2020.114176openalex-snapshot
How we refactor and how we document it? On the use of supervised machine learning algorithms to classify refactoring documentation
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2024.123602openalex-snapshot
Exploring ChatGPT’s code refactoring capabilities: An empirical study
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An exploratory study of software artifacts on GitHub from the lens of documentation
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107596openalex-snapshot
Deciphering refactoring branch dynamics in modern code review: An empirical study on Qt
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107687openalex-snapshot
An empirical study on the impact of code duplication-aware refactoring practices on quality metrics
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2023.111851openalex-snapshot
Deep learning with class-level abstract syntax tree and code histories for detecting code modification requirements
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2024.103168openalex-snapshot
Prescriptive procedure for manual code smell annotation
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2/7163249openalex-snapshot
Design Pattern Prediction From Source Code Using LLM–Based Feature Engineering and SVM Classification
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/ase63991.2025.00268openalex-snapshot
Metrics Driven Reengineering and Continuous Code Improvement at Meta
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/ast52587.2021.00013openalex-snapshot
Automatically Assessing and Extending Code Coverage for NPM Packages
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/esic60604.2024.10481609openalex-snapshot
Revealing MOVE METHOD: Machine Learning-driven Real-time Refactoring Identification for Enhanced Software Quality
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/esic64052.2025.10962571openalex-snapshot
Metrics-Based Refactoring Prediction Using Boosting Algorithm
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/esmarta70636.2026.11652314openalex-snapshot
Toward Improving Software Functionality through Refactoring Operations: An Experimental Study
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/icpc52881.2021.00033openalex-snapshot
RAID: Tool Support for Refactoring-Aware Code Reviews
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/icpc52881.2021.00039openalex-snapshot
Using Grammar Patterns to Interpret Test Method Name Evolution
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/icpc58990.2023.00035openalex-snapshot
Automating Method Naming with Context-Aware Prompt-Tuning
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Personalized Code Readability Assessment: Are We There Yet?
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The untold story of code refactoring customizations in practice
inferred← citeshttps://doi.org/10.1109/icsme52107.2021.00022openalex-snapshot
Does Refactoring Break Tests and to What Extent?
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On the Evolution of Code Readability
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How do Developers Improve Code Readability? An Empirical Study of Pull Requests
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Mind the Gap: The Disconnect Between Refactoring Criteria Used in Industry and Refactoring Recommendation Tools
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Refactoring Deep Learning Code: a Study of Practices and Unsatisfied Tool Needs
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How Does Test Code Differ from Production Code in Terms of Refactoring? An Empirical Study
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A Survey of Refactoring Techniques to Maximize Code Coverage Metric
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Refactoring Revisited: An Expanded Study on Refactoring Practices
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On the Practical Adoption of a Static Performance Anti-Pattern Detector: an Industrial Case Study
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BEQAIN: An Effective and Efficient Identifier Normalization Approach With BERT and the Question Answering System
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An Empirical Study of Software Refactorings in Real-World Open-Source Java Projects
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Extracting Conditional Expressions as Local Variables: Frequency, Motivation, and Automated Recommendation
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One thousand and one stories: a large-scale survey of software refactoring
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An Empirical Study on Refactoring-Inducing Pull Requests
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Code review practices for refactoring changes
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Problems and solutions in applying continuous integration and delivery to 20 open-source cyber-physical systems
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A Novel Refactoring and Semantic Aware Abstract Syntax Tree Differencing Tool and a Benchmark for Evaluating the Accuracy of Diff Tools
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Relating Complexity, Explicitness, Effectiveness of Refactorings and Non-Functional Requirements: A Replication Study
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Identification of Code Properties that Support Code Smell Analysis
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