We present a study on the refactoring activities performed during the evolution of 7 popular Java open source software systems, using a complex network approach. We find that classes affected by refac-torings are more likely to be interlinked than others, forming connected subgraphs. Our results show that in a software network, classes linked to refactored classes are likely to be refactored themselves. This result is meaningful because knowing how refactored classes are arranged inside a network could be useful to support developers in maintenance and refactoring activities.
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