DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.22791104.v1
title: Experimental Materials and Dataset - "On the Investigation of Empirical Contradictions - Aggregated Results of Local Studies on Readability and Comprehensibility of Source Code"

description: # Experimental Materials and Dataset <br> ## Overview <br> This study package contains the experimental materials and data used in the work entitled "On the Investigation of Empirical Contradictions - Aggregated Results of Local Studies on Readability and Comprehensibility of Source Code" performed by the authors _Talita V. Ribeiro_, _Paulo S. M. dos Santos_, and _Guilherme H. Travassos_. <br> &gt; The package comprises **four** folders that present the experimental materials used in the work. The materials can be used for study replications, aggregations and additional extensions of the work. <br> ## Contents <br> The folders are organized as follows: <br> 1. **Contradictions Summary**: This folder contains a summary of the information extracted from all papers mentioned in the Background section. * _Contradictory Papers.docx_: presents the reference for all papers used to base the discussion presented in the background. * _Contradictory Papers Summary.xlsx_: presents the data extraction from all papers used to base the discussion presented in the background. <br> 2. **Source Code Snippets**: This folder constains the source code snippets used in the three studies presented in the paper and exemplified in the Empirical Study Planning section. * The source code snippets used in the design are separated according to their level of difficulty and according to the source code attribute under assessment with them: comment presence, indentation spacing, identifier length and code size. In each file, it is possible to identify the two different versions of each source code snippet. <br> 3. **Consent and Characterization Forms**: This folder contains the forms used for gathering the consentment in taking part of the studies from the participants and the contextual information concerning their software development background. * The consent and characterization forms are written in Portuguese (native language of the participants). Also, the forms were slightly modified to meet each group of participants (graduate studentes, undergraduate intermediates and undergraduate begginers). <br> 4. **Data**: This folder contains all collected data and generated data that were used in the work. This folder is organized into three other folders: * _Raw Data and Descriptive Statistics_: This folder contains the raw data collected in each study S1 (EEL873), S2 (CPS820) and S3 (MAB114-MAB121). There is a file for each study in to organize the data collected and the descriptive statistics generated for each of them. * _Hypothesis Tests_: This folder contains a summary of the descriptive statistics along with the results of the hypothesis tests performed for each source code attribute in each study. * _Aggregation - Odds Ration and Forest Plots_: This folder contains the calculated data following the odds approch. There is a file for presenting the results for the perceptions (readability and comprehensibility) and other file for presenting the results for the explanations (readability) and answers (comprehensibility). &gt;&gt;&gt; It is important to mention that in each of this files the data is organized with two distinct purposes: i) to calculate the effect size of the studies and of their aggregation; ii) to support building the forest plots. &gt;&gt;&gt; The first sheets contain the effect size calculation for each analysis in each study (S1, S2 and S3): &gt;&gt;&gt;* _pleasant_: happy (satisfied) and non happy (non-satisfied - representing 0 from the interval scale) &gt;&gt;&gt;* _unpleasant_: sad (dissatisfied) and non sad (non-dissatisfied - representing 0 from the interval scale) &gt;&gt;&gt; The next sheets contain the effect size calculation for the aggregations. Sheets with DICO REAL in their name are just a summary of the previous sheets that were used to support building the forest plots (ES stands for effect size; CI stands for confidence interval; and y is just a number used for supporting positioning the element in the chart). <br> ## Contact <br> For additional information, reach us through: **tvribeiro [at] cos [dot] ufrj [dot] br**