  In this work, we study how the authorship of code affects bug-fixing commits
using the SStuBs dataset, a collection of single-statement bug fix changes in
popular Java Maven projects. More specifically, we study the differences in
characteristics between simple bug fixes by the original author -- that is, the
developer who submitted the bug-inducing commit -- and by different developers
(i.e., non-authors). Our study shows that nearly half (i.e., 44.3%) of simple
bugs are fixed by a different developer. We found that bug fixes by the
original author and by different developers differed qualitatively and
quantitatively. We observed that bug-fixing time by authors is much shorter
than that of other developers. We also found that bug-fixing commits by authors
tended to be larger in size and scope, and address multiple issues, whereas
bug-fixing commits by other developers tended to be smaller and more focused on
the bug itself. Future research can further study the different patterns in
bug-fixing and create more tailored tools based on the developer's needs.
