Similarity-based analyses on software applications: A systematic literature review

摘要

In empirical studies on processes, practices, and techniques of software engineering, automation and machine learning are gaining popularity. In order to extract knowledge from existing software projects, a sort of similarity analysis is often performed using different methodologies, data and metadata. This systematic literature review focuses therefore on existing approaches of similarity-, categorization-and relevance-based analysis on software applications. In total, 136 relevant publications and patents were identified between 2002 and 2019 according to the established inclusion and exclusion criteria, which perform a calculation of software similarity in general or to support certain software engineering phases.