{"id":"https://openalex.org/W2967932715","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3338906.3338918","title":"What the fork: a study of inefficient and efficient forking practices in social coding","display_name":"What the fork: a study of inefficient and efficient forking practices in social coding","publication_year":2019,"publication_date":"2019-08-09","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W2967932715","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3338906.3338918","mag":"2967932715"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3338906.3338918","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3338906.3338918","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3338906.3338918","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3338906.3338918","any_repository_has_fulltext":null},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5040272202","display_name":"Shurui Zhou","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6346-6073"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":true,"raw_author_name":"Shurui Zhou","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University, USA"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5050821883","display_name":"Bogdan Vasilescu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4418-5783"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Bogdan Vasilescu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University, USA"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5067467896","display_name":"Christian K\u00e4stner","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4450-4572"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Christian K\u00e4stner","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University, USA"],"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":3,"corresponding_author_ids":["https://openalex.org/A5040272202"],"corresponding_institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":10.3097,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":50,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.98149085,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":true},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":90,"max":99},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"350","last_page":"361"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11675","display_name":"Open Source Software Innovations","score":0.9998999834060669,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1706","display_name":"Computer Science Applications"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11675","display_name":"Open Source Software Innovations","score":0.9998999834060669,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1706","display_name":"Computer Science Applications"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10260","display_name":"Software Engineering Research","score":0.9997000098228455,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10430","display_name":"Software Engineering Techniques and Practices","score":0.995199978351593,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/fork","display_name":"Fork (system call)","score":0.9044138193130493},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.6441846489906311},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/open-source","display_name":"Open source","score":0.5852736234664917},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/coding","display_name":"Coding (social sciences)","score":0.5592637062072754},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/context","display_name":"Context (archaeology)","score":0.5296197533607483},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/modularity","display_name":"Modularity (biology)","score":0.5096051692962646},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/best-practice","display_name":"Best practice","score":0.49431514739990234},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/flexibility","display_name":"Flexibility (engineering)","score":0.48171669244766235},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/unpacking","display_name":"Unpacking","score":0.47999924421310425},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/knowledge-management","display_name":"Knowledge management","score":0.3355054259300232},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/business","display_name":"Business","score":0.3325726389884949},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/sociology","display_name":"Sociology","score":0.134542316198349},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/operating-system","display_name":"Operating system","score":0.1267337203025818},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/economics","display_name":"Economics","score":0.10574737191200256},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/management","display_name":"Management","score":0.10077854990959167},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/geography","display_name":"Geography","score":0.08190882205963135},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/software","display_name":"Software","score":0.08035165071487427}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C40523978","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14675","display_name":"Fork (system call)","level":2,"score":0.9044138193130493},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6441846489906311},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C3018397939","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3644502","display_name":"Open source","level":3,"score":0.5852736234664917},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C179518139","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5140297","display_name":"Coding (social sciences)","level":2,"score":0.5592637062072754},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779343474","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3109175","display_name":"Context (archaeology)","level":2,"score":0.5296197533607483},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779478453","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6889748","display_name":"Modularity (biology)","level":2,"score":0.5096051692962646},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C184356942","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q830382","display_name":"Best practice","level":2,"score":0.49431514739990234},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780598303","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q65921492","display_name":"Flexibility (engineering)","level":2,"score":0.48171669244766235},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777256151","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7897273","display_name":"Unpacking","level":2,"score":0.47999924421310425},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C56739046","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q192060","display_name":"Knowledge management","level":1,"score":0.3355054259300232},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C144133560","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4830453","display_name":"Business","level":0,"score":0.3325726389884949},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C144024400","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21201","display_name":"Sociology","level":0,"score":0.134542316198349},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C111919701","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9135","display_name":"Operating system","level":1,"score":0.1267337203025818},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C162324750","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8134","display_name":"Economics","level":0,"score":0.10574737191200256},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C187736073","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2920921","display_name":"Management","level":1,"score":0.10077854990959167},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C205649164","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1071","display_name":"Geography","level":0,"score":0.08190882205963135},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777904410","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7397","display_name":"Software","level":2,"score":0.08035165071487427},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C36289849","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34749","display_name":"Social science","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C54355233","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7162","display_name":"Genetics","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C166957645","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23498","display_name":"Archaeology","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C86803240","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q420","display_name":"Biology","level":0,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41895202","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8162","display_name":"Linguistics","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C138885662","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5891","display_name":"Philosophy","level":0,"score":0.0}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3338906.3338918","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3338906.3338918","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3338906.3338918","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3338906.3338918","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3338906.3338918","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3338906.3338918","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/10","display_name":"Reduced inequalities","score":0.6000000238418579}],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1817064357","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"1318808, 1552944","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1837631605","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"FA8750-16-2-0042","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320338294","funder_display_name":"Air Force Research Laboratory"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3305415900","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"1552944","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3693556586","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"2-004","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G4713059963","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"FA8750","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320332180","funder_display_name":"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G4852563278","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"1717022","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G5574418846","display_name":"SHF: Small: Collaborative Research: Discerning and Recommending Context-Specific Best Practices in DevOps-Oriented Software Development","funder_award_id":"1717415","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G7490241451","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"FA8750-16-2-0042","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320332180","funder_display_name":"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","display_name":"National Science Foundation","ror":"https://ror.org/021nxhr62"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320332180","display_name":"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency","ror":"https://ror.org/02caytj08"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320338294","display_name":"Air Force Research Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/02e2egq70"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":true,"pdf":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W2967932715.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W2967932715.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":76,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W63477783","https://openalex.org/W127622208","https://openalex.org/W153118085","https://openalex.org/W221670187","https://openalex.org/W1494343913","https://openalex.org/W1510316655","https://openalex.org/W1523514583","https://openalex.org/W1540343830","https://openalex.org/W1592081868","https://openalex.org/W1595108726","https://openalex.org/W1862037233","https://openalex.org/W1868988530","https://openalex.org/W1972386298","https://openalex.org/W1984141355","https://openalex.org/W1990459195","https://openalex.org/W1991604845","https://openalex.org/W1992105838","https://openalex.org/W1998832529","https://openalex.org/W2004103187","https://openalex.org/W2007201275","https://openalex.org/W2017530789","https://openalex.org/W2029743492","https://openalex.org/W2031425482","https://openalex.org/W2041838769","https://openalex.org/W2048106726","https://openalex.org/W2057245786","https://openalex.org/W2058306311","https://openalex.org/W2071203079","https://openalex.org/W2083376686","https://openalex.org/W2092052791","https://openalex.org/W2097347001","https://openalex.org/W2108188807","https://openalex.org/W2109962300","https://openalex.org/W2116805092","https://openalex.org/W2121887779","https://openalex.org/W2124100711","https://openalex.org/W2128500420","https://openalex.org/W2134119432","https://openalex.org/W2136279823","https://openalex.org/W2139092060","https://openalex.org/W2154151876","https://openalex.org/W2157071571","https://openalex.org/W2161825580","https://openalex.org/W2163004671","https://openalex.org/W2164284962","https://openalex.org/W2164815091","https://openalex.org/W2167514255","https://openalex.org/W2168248828","https://openalex.org/W2169935170","https://openalex.org/W2186572134","https://openalex.org/W2294130646","https://openalex.org/W2338729281","https://openalex.org/W2380271241","https://openalex.org/W2402802372","https://openalex.org/W2403870243","https://openalex.org/W2503836346","https://openalex.org/W2515214571","https://openalex.org/W2548749170","https://openalex.org/W2607998937","https://openalex.org/W2752357991","https://openalex.org/W2758152813","https://openalex.org/W2760196363","https://openalex.org/W2794805372","https://openalex.org/W2794957215","https://openalex.org/W2794967409","https://openalex.org/W2795081714","https://openalex.org/W2809217055","https://openalex.org/W2884292363","https://openalex.org/W2889033447","https://openalex.org/W2899036005","https://openalex.org/W2904676771","https://openalex.org/W2920924032","https://openalex.org/W3029086932","https://openalex.org/W3122819781","https://openalex.org/W4242496111","https://openalex.org/W4285719527"],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W2980032325","https://openalex.org/W2042188247","https://openalex.org/W2017714611","https://openalex.org/W4224995949","https://openalex.org/W1992482086","https://openalex.org/W2385797406","https://openalex.org/W2608610227","https://openalex.org/W2024662052","https://openalex.org/W2527888910","https://openalex.org/W2012499420"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Forking":[0],"and":[1,15,45,48,80,104,112],"pull":[2,118],"requests":[3],"have":[4],"been":[5],"widely":[6,77],"used":[7],"in":[8,133],"open-source":[9,57],"communities":[10,72],"as":[11],"a":[12,113],"uniform":[13],"development":[14],"contribution":[16],"mechanism,":[17],"giving":[18],"developers":[19],"the":[20],"flexibility":[21],"to":[22,32,64,76,83,129],"modify":[23],"their":[24,134],"own":[25],"fork":[26],"without":[27],"affecting":[28],"others":[29],"before":[30],"attempting":[31],"contribute":[33],"back.":[34],"However,":[35],"not":[36],"all":[37],"projects":[38,58],"use":[39],"forks":[40],"efficiently;":[41],"many":[42],"experience":[43,73],"lost":[44],"duplicate":[46],"contributions":[47,111],"fragmented":[49],"communities.":[50,135],"In":[51],"this":[52],"paper,":[53],"we":[54,68,91],"explore":[55],"how":[56],"on":[59],"GitHub":[60],"differ":[61],"with":[62,97,109],"regard":[63],"forking":[65],"inefficiencies.":[66],"First,":[67],"observed":[69],"that":[70,101,124],"different":[71,78],"these":[74],"inefficiencies":[75,132],"degrees":[79],"interviewed":[81],"practitioners":[82],"understand":[84],"why.":[85],"Then,":[86],"using":[87],"multiple":[88],"regression":[89],"modeling,":[90],"analyzed":[92],"which":[93],"context":[94],"factors":[95],"correlate":[96],"fewer":[98],"inefficiencies.We":[99],"found":[100],"better":[102],"modularity":[103],"centralized":[105],"management":[106],"are":[107],"associated":[108],"more":[110],"higher":[114],"fraction":[115],"of":[116],"accepted":[117],"requests,":[119],"suggesting":[120],"specific":[121],"best":[122],"practices":[123],"project":[125],"maintainers":[126],"can":[127],"adopt":[128],"reduce":[130],"forking-related":[131]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":3},{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":5},{"year":2024,"cited_by_count":5},{"year":2023,"cited_by_count":4},{"year":2022,"cited_by_count":12},{"year":2021,"cited_by_count":9},{"year":2020,"cited_by_count":11},{"year":2019,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-04-14T08:04:32.555800","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}