Challenges in data extraction from Open Source software repositories

Abstract

Open source softwares (OSS) are a boon to research and development. Their free access and availability of thousands of projects pushes research into new dimensions. But are these repositories actually helpful in quality research? Heterogeneous and incomplete data, lack of integration between repositories, performance and usability issues and lack of documentation are few factors that affect the quality of research in Open Source. In this paper, we lay down the difficulties experienced while working on extraction and analysis of data from open source repositories for quality research.