The authors examine empirical software maintenance research during the 1980s and categorize the research according to placement, origin, and nature to determine what has been done in the past. To aid in the investigation, an exhaustive electronic keyword search was made of abstracts found in Computer Database Abstracts and the INSPEC Computer and Control; Abstracts. The full abstracts for the articles found in the searches were scrutinized to determine whether they were appropriate. On the basis of the abstracts, full articles were examined to provide summary and trend statistics. The dimensions used to categorize and interpret the current state of empirical software maintenance research were derived from a survey conducted at the 1988 IEEE Conference on Software Maintenance. It was found that the volume of empirical software maintenance research apparently has increased over the decade. Second, the use of COBOL in empirical studies appears to be increasing. The use of only students in empirical studies has declined slightly through the decade, and the majority of software maintenance research continues to be accomplished by academic researchers.
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