A tenet of open source software development is to accept contributions from users-developers (typically after appropriate vetting). But should this include interventions done as part of research on open source development? Following an incident in which buggy code was submitted to the Linux kernel to see whether it would be caught, we conduct a survey among open source developers and empirical software engineering researchers to see what behaviors they think are acceptable. This covers two main issues: the use of publicly accessible information, and conducting active experimentation. The survey had 224 respondents. The results indicate that open-source developers are largely open to research, provided it is done transparently. In other words, many would agree to experiments on open-source projects if the subjects were notified and provided informed consent, and in special cases also if only the project leaders agree. While researchers generally hold similar opinions, they sometimes fail to appreciate certain nuances in the stand of developers. Examples include observing license restrictions on publishing open-source code and safeguarding the code. Conversely, researchers seem to be more concerned than developers about privacy issues. Based on these results, it is recommended that open source repositories and projects include research considerations in their access guidelines, and that researchers take care to ask permission also when not formally required to do so. We note too that the open source community wants to be heard, so professional societies and IRBs should consult with them when formulating ethics codes.
翻译:开源软件开发的主旨是接受用户-开发者的贡献(通常是在适当审查之后)。但是,如果这包括作为公开源码开发研究的一部分而采取的干预措施的话。 在出现错误代码被提交给Linux内核以看是否被捕获的事件之后,我们对开放源代码开发者和实证软件工程研究人员进行调查,以确定他们认为哪些行为可以接受。这涉及两个主要问题:使用公开可获取的信息和进行积极的实验。调查有224个答复者。结果显示,开源开发者基本上可以接受研究,条件是透明。换句话说,如果对象得到通知并提供了知情的同意,许多人会同意在开放源项目上进行实验,在特殊情况下,如果只有项目领导人同意的话,也会同意。虽然研究人员一般持有类似的意见,但他们有时不能理解开发者的立场中的某些细微差别。例如,在公布公开源代码和维护代码时遵守许可证限制。相反,研究人员似乎比开发者更关心隐私问题。基于这些结果,建议公开源库和项目在访问指南中包括研究考虑其访问的考虑,因此,研究人员在设计者要求制定机构提出公开源码时,我们也要求提出这样的要求。