Sustainability of Open Source Software Communities Beyond a Fork: How and Why Has the LibreOffice Project Evolved?
Open accessAbstract
Many organisations are dependent upon long-term sustainable software systems and associated communities. In this paper we consider long-term sustainability of Open Source software communities in Open Source software projects involving a fork. There is currently a lack of studies in the literature that address how specific Open Source software communities are affected by a fork. We report from a study aiming to investigate the developer community around the LibreOffice project, which is a fork from the OpenOffice.org project. In so doing, our analysis also covers the OpenOffice.org project and the related Apache OpenOffice project. The results strongly suggest a long-term sustainable LibreOffice community and that there are no signs of stagnation in the LibreOffice project 33 months after the fork. Our analysis provides details on developer communities for the LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice projects and specifically concerning how they have evolved from the OpenOffice.org community with respect to project activity, developer commitment, and retention of committers over time. Further, we present results from an analysis of first hand experiences from contributors in the LibreOffice community. Findings from our analysis show that Open Source software communities can outlive Open Source software projects and that LibreOffice is perceived by its community as supportive, diversified, and independent. The study contributes new insights concerning challenges related to long-term sustainability of Open Source software communities.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Vendor dominance and conflicts in the origin project arose due to inadequate working processes, lack of congruence concerning project goals, and unclear leadership, resulting in some members staying with the original project and some leaving to the hard fork.
“They described how vendor dominance and 'conflicts in the origin project arose due to inadequate working processes, lack of congruence concerning project goals, and unclear (or in other ways inadequate) leadership' (p.129) resulted in the shuffling of some members staying with the original project and some leaving to the hard fork.”
From Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events (2026) · cites this paper as Gamalielsson and Lundell 2014
Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredGamalielsson and Lundell (2014) explored the window in time when a hard fork provided a path towards sustainability of the OpenOffice.org project.
“Gamalielsson and Lundell (2014) explored the window in time when a hard fork provided a path towards sustainability of the OpenO ffice. org project.”
From Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events (2026) · cites this paper as Gamalielsson and Lundell 2014
The Introduction and Discussion examine the OpenOffice.org-to-LibreOffice fork and find early indications of a sustainable LibreOffice community, including during a period when OpenOffice.org was inactive. But the paper describes OpenOffice.org as discontinued and does not say the fork made the OpenOffice.org project itself sustainable; its sustainability finding concerns the successor community. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe survival of open source can be challenged by internal threats instead of external ones.
“Others yet see the survival of open source challenged by internal threats instead of external ones (Gamalielsson & Lundell, 2014).”
From The sustainability of open source commons (2023) · cites this paper as Gamalielsson & Lundell, 2014
Section 2, “On sustainable Open Source software communities” (page unavailable), says inadequate governance and conflicts over project goals or leadership can threaten community sustainability. It does not say these internal challenges arise instead of external ones; the same section also discusses risks such as patent litigation. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe newly forked open source project, LibreOffice, enabled new forms of participation and the development of a new future in relation to prior experiences.
“The newly forked open source project, LibreOffice, enabled new forms of participation and the development of a new future in relation to prior experiences.”
From Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events (2026) · cites this paper as Gamalielsson and Lundell 2014
A hard fork created a branch to which members of the original project could join to help ensure the sustainability of open source artefacts.
“In this, a hard fork created a branch to which members of the original project could join to help ensure the sustainability of open source artefacts.”
From Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events (2026) · cites this paper as Gamalielsson and Lundell 2014
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla
Mockus, A., Fielding, R. T., & Herbsleb, J. D. (2002) · ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology · doi:10.1145/567793.567795 · Cited by 1,685 · see citing works
Free/Libre open-source software development
Crowston, K., Wei, K., Howison, J., & Wiggins, A. (2008) · ACM Computing Surveys · doi:10.1145/2089125.2089127 · Cited by 457 · see citing works
Outsourcing to an Unknown Workforce: Exploring Opensourcing as a Global Sourcing Strategy1
Ågerfalk, P. J., & Fitzgerald (2008) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/25148845 · Cited by 445 · see citing works
Cave or Community? An Empirical Examination of 100 Mature Open Source Projects
Krishnamurthy, S. (2002) · First Monday · doi:10.5210/fm.v7i6.960 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
DEFINING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECT SUCCESS
Crowston, K., Annabi, H., & Howison, J. (2003) · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · Cited by 309 · see citing works
Information systems success in free and open source software development: theory and measures
Crowston, K., Howison, J., & Annabi, H. (2006) · Software Process Improvement and Practice · doi:10.1002/spip.259 · Cited by 301 · see citing works
Essence of distributed work: the case of the Linux kernel
Moon, J. Y., & Sproull, L. (2000) · First Monday · doi:10.5210/fm.v5i11.801 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
Determinants of open source software project success: A longitudinal study
Subramaniam, C., Sen, R., & Nelson, M. L. (2008) · Decision Support Systems · doi:10.1016/j.dss.2008.10.005 · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!
Wheeler, D. A. (2005) · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Bonaccorsi, A. J., & Rossi, C. (2006) · Knowledge, technology & policy/Knowledge in society/Knowledge, technology, & policy · doi:10.1007/s12130-006-1003-9 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
The FreeBSD project: a replication case study of open source development
Dinh-Trong, T., & Bieman, J. M. (2005) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2005.73 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
Measuring open source software success
Lee, S. T., Kim, H., & Gupta, S. (2007) · Omega · doi:10.1016/j.omega.2007.05.005 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
The GNOME project: a case study of open source, global software development
German, D. M. (2003) · Software Process: Improvement and Practice · doi:10.1002/spip.189 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
The Total Growth of Open Source
Deshpande, A., & Riehle, D. (2008) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09684-1_16 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
The Linux kernel as a case study in software evolution
Israeli, A., & Feitelson, D. G. (2009) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.042 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Governance of open source software: state of the art
de Laat, P. B. (2007) · Journal of Management & Governance · doi:10.1007/s10997-007-9022-9 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Factors affecting the success of Open Source Software
Midha, V., & Palvia, P. (2011) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2011.11.010 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
The attraction of contributors in free and open source software projects
dos Santos, C. D., Kuk, G., Kon, F., & Pearson, J. (2012) · The Journal of Strategic Information Systems · doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2012.07.004 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Survival analysis on the duration of open source projects
Samoladas, I., Angelis, L., & Stamelos, I. G. (2010) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2010.05.001 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Code Forking, Governance, and Sustainability in Open Source Software
Nyman, L., & Lindman, J. (2013) · Technology Innovation Management Review · doi:10.22215/timreview/644 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Open Source Development, Communities and Quality
Russo, B., Succi, G., Lundell, B., Hissam, S., & Damiani, E. (2008) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09684-1 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Self-citationMens, T., Fernández‐Ramil, J., & Degrandsart, S. (2008) · IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM) · doi:10.1109/icsm.2008.4658087 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Open source software success: Measures and analysis
Sen, R., Singh, S. S., & Borle, S. (2011) · Decision Support Systems · doi:10.1016/j.dss.2011.09.003 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Applying Social Network Analysis Techniques to Community-Driven Libre Software Projects
López-Fernández, L., Robles, G., Gonzalez-Barahona, J. M., & Herraiz, I. (2006) · International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering · doi:10.4018/jitwe.2006070103 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
(2005) · Cited by 70 · see citing works
A Comprehensive Study of Software Forks: Dates, Reasons and Outcomes
Robles, G., & González-Barahona, J. M. (2012) · IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_1 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Challenges and strategies in the use of Open Source Software by Independent Software Vendors
Ven, K., & Mannaert, H. (2007) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2007.09.001 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
A case study of cross-system porting in forked projects
Ray, B., & Kim, M. (2012) · ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) · doi:10.1145/2393596.2393659 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
A reference model for successful Distributed Development of Software Systems
Lings, B., Lundell, B., Ågerfalk, P. J., & Fitzgerald, B. F. (2007) · IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) · doi:10.1109/icgse.2007.6 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Self-citationDefining and Evaluating a Measure of Open Source Project Survivability
Raja, U., & Tretter, M. J. (2012) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2011.39 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Understanding the process of participating in open source communities
Shibuya, B., & Tamai, T. (2009) · ICSE Workshop on Emerging Trends in Free/Libre/Open Source Software Research and Development (FLOSS) · doi:10.1109/floss.2009.5071352 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
The evolution of FreeBSD and linux
Izurieta, C. I., & Bieman, J. M. (2006) · International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering · doi:10.1145/1159733.1159765 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
On the adaptation of Grounded Theory procedures: insights from the evolution of the 2G method
Lings, B., & Lundell, B. (2005) · Information Technology and People · doi:10.1108/09593840510615842 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Self-citationOpen source in Swedish companies: where are we?
Lundell, B., Lings, B., & Lindqvist, E. (2010) · Information Systems Journal · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2010.00348.x · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Self-citationPerspectives on Code Forking and Sustainability in Open Source Software
Nyman, L., Mikkonen, T., Lindman, J., & Fougère, M. (2012) · IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_21 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Free/Open Source Software Development
(2005) · Online Information Review · doi:10.1108/14684520510607650 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Survival factors for Free Open Source Software projects: A multi-stage perspective
Jing, W. (2012) · European Management Journal · doi:10.1016/j.emj.2012.03.001 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Open Source Ecosystems: Diverse Communities Interacting
Boldyreff, C., Lundell, B., Crowston, K., & Wasserman, A. I. (2009) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02032-2 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationEstablishing an Assessment Process for a Computing Program
Aasheim, C. L., Gowan, J. A., & Reichgelt, H. (2007) · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Practitioner perceptions of Open Source software in the embedded systems area
Lundell, B., Lings, B., & Syberfeldt, A. (2011) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2011.03.020 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Self-citationMartínez-Romo, J., Robles, G., Gonzalez-Barahona, J. M., & Ortuño-Perez, M. (2008) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09684-1_14 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability
Hammouda, I., Scacchi, W., Mikkonen, T., & Lundell, B. (2012) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Self-citationChoosing an Open Source License
Engelfriet, A. (2010) · IEEE Software · doi:10.1109/ms.2010.5 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Forks impacts and motivations in free and open source projects
Viseur, R. (2012) · International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications · doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2012.030221 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Open Source Software: New Horizons
Ågerfalk, P. J., Boldyreff, C., Gonzalez-Barahona, J. M., Madey, G. R., & Noll, J. (2010) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13244-5 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
To Fork or Not to Fork: Fork Motivations in SourceForge Projects
Nyman, L., & Mikkonen, T. (2011) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24418-6_18 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Reasons for the non-adoption of OpenOffice.org in a data-intensive public administration
Huysmans, P., Ven, K., & Verelst, J. (2008) · First Monday · doi:10.5210/fm.v13i10.2238 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Open Source Systems: Grounding Research
Hissam, S., Russo, B., Neto, M. D. M., & Kon, F. (2011) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24418-6 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Characterizing the Dynamics of Open User Experience Design: The Cases of Firefox and OpenOffice.org
Bach, P., & Carroll, J. M. (2010) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · doi:10.17705/1jais.00247 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Analysis of Open Source Software Development Iterations by Means of Burst Detection Techniques
Rossi, B., Russo, B., & Succi, G. (2009) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02032-2_9 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Heartbeat: Measuring Active User Base and Potential User Interest in FLOSS Projects
Wiggins, A., Howison, J., & Crowston, K. (2009) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02032-2_10 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Perpetual development: A model of the Linux kernel life cycle
Feitelson, D. G. (2011) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2011.10.050 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Reclassifying Success and Tragedy in FLOSS Projects
Wiggins, A., & Crowston, K. (2010) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13244-5_23 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
The Nagios Community: An Extended Quantitative Analysis
Gamalielsson, J., Lundell, B., & Lings, B. (2010) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13244-5_7 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Self-citationE-Governance in Public Sector ICT Procurement : What is Shaping Practice in Sweden?
Lundell, B. (2011) · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Apache Software Foundation: Brian Behlendorf
Severance, C. (2012) · Computer · doi:10.1109/mc.2012.355 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Emerging Free and Open Source Software Practices
Sowe, S. K., Stamelos, I. G., & Samoladas, I. M. (2007) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-59904-210-7 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Open Source Software for Model Driven Development: A Case Study
Gamalielsson, J., Lundell, B., & Mattsson, A. (2011) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24418-6_30 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citationCommunity Management in Open Source Projects
Michlmayr, M. (2009) · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Gamalielsson, J., & Lundell, B. (2012) · IFIP International Federation for Information Processing/IFIP · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_3 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationCoaching Global Software Development Projects
Paasivaara, M. (2011) · IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) · doi:10.1109/icgse.2011.33 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
An Empirical Study on the Migration to OpenOffice.org in a Public Administration
Rossi, B., Scotto, M., Sillitti, A., & Succi, G. (2006) · International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering · doi:10.4018/jitwe.2006070105 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
The Art of Teaching Computer Science: Niklaus Wirth
Severance, C. (2012) · Computer · doi:10.1109/mc.2012.245 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The Adoption of Open Source Desktop Software in a Large Public Administration
Ven, K., Huysmans, P., & Verelst, J. (2007) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Polarsys : Towards Long-Term Availability of Engineering Tools for Embedded Systems
Blondelle, G., Arbaret, P., Rossignol, A., Lundell, B., Labezin, C., Berrendonner, R., Gaufillet, P., Faudou, R., Langlois, B., Maisonobe, L., et al. (2012) · HAL · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationTowards a Sustainable Swedish e-Government Practice : Observations from unlocking digital assets
Lundell, B., & Gamalielsson, J. (2011) · Electronic Government · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationGamalielsson, J., & Lundell, B. (2011) · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Adoption of Open Source Desktop Software
Ven, K., Kerckhoven, G. V., & Verelst, J. (2010) · International Journal on IT/Business Alignment and Governance · doi:10.4018/jitbag.2010100101 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Proceedings of SOS 2011 : Towards Sustainable Open Source
Hammouda, I., & Lundell, B. (2011) · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 71 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 10
- Bacon, J., 2009. The Art of Community. O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol.
- Brock, A., 2013. Understanding commercial agreements with open source compa- nies. In: Coughlan, S. (Ed.), Thoughts on Open Innovation -Essays on Open Innovation from Leading Thinkers in the Field. OpenForum Europe LTD for Open- Forum Academy, Brussels.
- Conlon, M.P., 2007. An examination of initiation, organization, participation, lead- ership, and control of successful Open Source software development projects. Information Systems Education Journal 5 (38), 1-13.
- IBM, 2011. IBM to Contribute to New, Proposed OpenOffice.org Project, http://www- 03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/34638.wss (accessed June 2013).
- Koponen, T., Lintula, H., Hotti, V., 2006. Defects reports in Open Source Software maintenance process -OpenOffice.org case study. In: Proceedings of Software Engineering Applications (SEA 2006), Dallas, TX, USA, 13-15 November.
- Marketwire, 2011a. Oracle Announces Its Intention to Move OpenOffice.org to a Community-Based Project, http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/ oracle-announces-its-intention-to-move-openofficeorg-to-a-community- based-project-nasdaq-orcl-1503027.htm (accessed June 2013).
- Marketwire, 2011b. Statements on OpenOffice.org Contribution to Apache, http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/statements-on-openofficeorg- contribution-to-apache-nasdaq-orcl-1521400.htm (accessed June 2013).
- Oracle, 2010. Oracle Completes Acquisition of Sun, http://www.oracle. com/us/corporate/press/044428 (accessed June 2013).
- Robert, S., 2006. On-board software development -the open-source way. In: IST/ARTEMIS Workshop, Helsinki, 22 November.
- Seydel, J., 2009. OpenOffice.org: when will it be ready for prime time? In: Proceed- ings of the Southwest Decision Sciences Institute Conference (SWDSI), 25-28 February, Oklahoma city, Oklahoma, pp. 388-398.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Karhu, K., Gustafsson, R., & Lyytinen, K. (2018) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.2018.0786 · Cited by 286 · see citing works
Montes, F. J. R., Bueno, S., & Gallego, M. D. (2020) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app10082711 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Discovering community patterns in open-source: a systematic approach and its evaluation
Tamburri, D. A., Palomba, F., Serebrenik, A., & Zaidman, A. (2018) · Empirical Software Engineering · doi:10.1007/s10664-018-9659-9 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Why do blockchains split? An actor-network perspective on Bitcoin splits
Islam, A., Mäntymäki, M., & Turunen, M. (2019) · Technological forecasting & social change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119743 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
The Impact of Ideology Misfit on Open Source Software Communities and Companies1
Daniel, S. L., Maruping, L. M., Cataldo, M., & Herbsleb, J. (2018) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.25300/misq/2018/14242 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
What the fork: a study of inefficient and efficient forking practices in social coding
Zhou, S., Vasilescu, B., & Kästner, C. (2019) · ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) · doi:10.1145/3338906.3338918 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Barcomb, A., Kaufmann, A., Riehle, D., Stol, K.-J., & Fitzgerald, B. (2020) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2018.2872713 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Are You Still Working on This? An Empirical Study on Pull Request Abandonment
Li, Z., Yu, Y., Wang, T., Yin, G., Li, S., & Wang, H. (2021) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2021.3053403 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Read, S., & Swarts, J. (2014) · Technical Communication Quarterly · doi:10.1080/10572252.2015.975961 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Understanding collaborative software development
Constantino, K. F., Zhou, S., Souza, M. R. D. A., Figueiredo, E., & Kästner, C. (2020) · IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) · doi:10.1145/3372787.3390442 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Reuse and maintenance practices among divergent forks in three software ecosystems
Businge, J., Openja, M., Nadi, S., & Berger, T. (2022) · Empirical Software Engineering · doi:10.1007/s10664-021-10078-2 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
On Company Contributions to Community Open Source Software Projects
Butler, S., Gamalielsson, J., Lundell, B., Brax, C., Sjöberg, J., Mattsson, A., Gustavsson, T., Feist, J., & Lönroth, E. (2019) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2019.2919305 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Self-citationSustaining platforms as commons: perspectives on participation, infrastructure, and governance
Poderi, G. (2019) · CoDesign · doi:10.1080/15710882.2019.1631351 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Comparative case studies of open source software peer review practices
Wang, J., Shih, P. C., Wu, Y. “., & Carroll, J. M. (2015) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2015.06.002 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Rastogi, A., & Nagappan, N. (2016) · IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) · doi:10.1109/saner.2016.27 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Perceptions of open‐source software developers on collaborations: An interview and survey study
Constantino, K. F., Souza, M. R. D. A., Zhou, S., Figueiredo, E., & Kästner, C. (2021) · Journal of Software Evolution and Process · doi:10.1002/smr.2393 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Understanding decentralized autonomous organizations from the inside
Augustin, N., Eckhardt, A., & de Jong, A. W. (2023) · Electronic Markets · doi:10.1007/s12525-023-00659-y · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Sustainability forecasting for Apache incubator projects
Yin, L., Chen, Z., Xuan, Q., & Filkov, V. (2021) · ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) · doi:10.1145/3468264.3468563 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Managing Episodic Volunteers in Free/Libre/Open Source Software Communities
Barcomb, A., Stol, K.-J., Fitzgerald, B. F., & Riehle, D. (2020) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/tse.2020.2985093 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Refactoring community smells in the wild
Catolino, G., Palomba, F., Tamburri, D. A., Serebrenik, A., & Ferrucci, F. (2020) · IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS) · doi:10.1145/3377815.3381380 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
How has forking changed in the last 20 years?: a study of hard forks on GitHub
Zhou, S., Vasilescu, B., & Kästner, C. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering · doi:10.1145/3377811.3380412 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Why Do Episodic Volunteers Stay in FLOSS Communities?
Barcomb, A., Stol, K.-J., Riehle, D., & Fitzgerald, B. (2019) · International Conference on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/icse.2019.00100 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Staal, J., Driege, Y., Haegman, M., Borghi, A., Hulpiau, P., Lievens, L., Gül, I. S., Sundararaman, S., Gonçalves, A. C., Dhondt, I., et al. (2018) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.01136 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
OSPM: A design methodology for open strategic planning
Amrollahi, A., & Rowlands, B. (2018) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2018.01.006 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Li, X., Moreschini, S., Zhang, Z., & Taibi, D. (2022) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2022.111255 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Empirical Research on the Evaluation Model and Method of Sustainability of the Open Source Ecosystem
Liao, Z., Deng, L., Fan, X., Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Qi, X., & Zhou, Y. (2018) · Symmetry · doi:10.3390/sym10120747 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Sharif, K. Y., English, M., Alí, N., Exton, C., Collins, J. J., & Buckley, J. (2014) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2014.09.003 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Butler, S., Gamalielsson, J., Lundell, B., Jonsson, P., Sjöberg, J., Mattsson, A., Rickö, N., Gustavsson, T., Feist, J., Landemoo, S., et al. (2018) · IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice (ICSE-SEIP) · doi:10.1145/3183519.3183531 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Self-citationOpen Source Community Health: Analytical Metrics and Their Corresponding Narratives
Goggins, S., Lumbard, K., & Germonprez, M. (2021) · International Workshop on Software Health · doi:10.1109/soheal52568.2021.00010 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Alone or Together? Inter-organizational affiliations of open source communities
Eckert, R., Stuermer, M., & Myrach, T. (2018) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2018.12.007 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
OpenDroneMap: Multi-Platform Performance Analysis
Gbagir, A.-M. G., Ek, K., & Colpaert, A. (2023) · Geographies · doi:10.3390/geographies3030023 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Lundell, B., Gamalielsson, J., Tengblad, S., Yousefi, B. H., Fischer, T., Johansson, G., Rodung, B., Mattsson, A., Oppmark, J., Gustavsson, T., et al. (2017) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57735-7_9 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Self-citationThe ECTN Virtual Education Community Prosumer Model for Promoting and Assessing Chemical Knowledge
Laganà, A., Gervasi, O., Tasso, S., Perri, D., & Franciosa, F. (2018) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95174-4_42 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The Social Developer: The Future of Software Development [Guest Editors' Introduction]
Mens, T., Cataldo, M., & Damian, D. (2019) · IEEE Software · doi:10.1109/ms.2018.2874316 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Islam, N., Mäntymäki, M., & Turunen, M. (2019) · Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · doi:10.24251/hicss.2019.556 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Improving the detection of community smells through socio‐technical and sentiment analysis
Almarimi, N., Ouni, A., Chouchen, M., & Mkaouer, M. W. (2022) · Journal of Software Evolution and Process · doi:10.1002/smr.2505 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Zhou, H., Zhang, X., & Hu, Y. (2019) · Physica A Statistical Mechanics and its Applications · doi:10.1016/j.physa.2019.122888 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Couldry, N., Rodríguez, C., Bolin, G., Cohen, J. E., Goggin, G. M., Kraidy, M. M., Iwabuchi, K., Lee, K.-S., Qiu, J. L., Volkmer, I., et al. (2018) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108399647.006 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
The sustainability of open source commons
Curto-Millet, D., & Corsín Jiménez, A. (2023) · European Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.1080/0960085x.2022.2046516 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Nyman, L. (2014) · International Symposium on Open Collaboration · doi:10.1145/2641580.2641590 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
A Motivation-Hygiene Model of Open Source Software Code Contribution and Growth
Sharma, P. N., Daniel, S. L., Chung, T. R., & Grover, V. (2022) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · doi:10.17705/1jais.00712 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Linåker, J., Regnell, B., & Damian, D. (2019) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2019.04.010 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Linåker, J., & Runeson, P. (2022) · Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Open Collaboration · doi:10.1145/3555051.3555066 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
From Periphery to Core: A Temporal Analysis of GitHub Contributors’ Collaboration Network
Asri, I. E., Kerzazi, N., Benhiba, L., & Idrissi, M. A. J. (2017) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-65151-4_21 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Community radio stations sustainability model: An open-source solution
Correia, R., Vieira, J., & Aparício, M. (2019) · Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media · doi:10.1386/rjao.17.1.29_1 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
OSCRUM: A Modified Scrum for Open Source Software Development
Rahman, S. S. M. M., Mollah, S. A., Anirban, S., Rahman, M. H., Rahman, M., Hassan, M. M., & Sharif, M. H. (2019) · International Journal of Simulation Systems Science & Technology · doi:10.5013/ijssst.a.19.03.20 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
GAP: Forecasting commit activity in git projects
Decan, A., Constantinou, E., Mens, T., & Rocha, H. (2020) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2020.110573 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Thakur, A. M., Milewicz, R. M., Jahanshahi, M., Paganini, L., Vasilescu, B., & Mockus, A. (2025) · Proceedings of the ACM on software engineering. · doi:10.1145/3729369 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Zhou, J., Wang, S., Kamei, Y., Hassan, A. E., & Ubayashi, N. (2021) · Empirical Software Engineering · doi:10.1007/s10664-021-10060-y · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Public attitudes on open source communities in China: A text mining analysis
Hou, S., Zhang, X., Yi, B., & Tang, Y. (2022) · Technology in Society · doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.102112 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Link, G. J. P., & Jeske, D. (2017) · International Symposium on Open Collaboration · doi:10.1145/3125433.3125472 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
On licensing and other conditions for contributing to widely used open source projects
Gamalielsson, J., & Lundell, B. (2017) · International Symposium on Open Collaboration · doi:10.1145/3125433.3125456 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-citationA Systematic Mapping Study on Analysis of Code Repositories
Sayago‐Heredia, J., Pérez‐Castillo, R., & Piattini, M. G. (2021) · Informatica · doi:10.15388/21-infor454 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Constantino, K. F., Belém, F. M., & Figueiredo, E. (2023) · Software Practice and Experience · doi:10.1002/spe.3194 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Dennehy, D., Conboy, K., Ferreira, J., & Babu, J. (2020) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-020-10059-8 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Worries of open source projects' contributors: Patterns, structures and engagement implications
Poba‐Nzaou, P., & Uwizeyemungu, S. (2019) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.02.005 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Menéndez-Caravaca, E., Bueno, S., & Gallego, M. D. (2021) · Technological Forecasting and Social Change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121087 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
An empirical investigation of social comparison and open source community health
Lumbard, K., Germonprez, M., & Goggins, S. (2023) · Information Systems Journal · doi:10.1111/isj.12485 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
TWINS - This Workflow Is Not Scrum: Agile Process Adaptation for Open Source Software Projects
Robinson, P. T., & Beecham, S. (2019) · International Conference on Software and System Process · doi:10.1109/icssp.2019.00014 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Lei, S., Zhang, X., & Liu, S. (2021) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e23091235 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Socio-Technical Dependencies in Forked OSS Projects: Evidence from the BSD Family
Syeed, M. M. M., & Hammouda, I. (2014) · Journal of Software · doi:10.4304/jsw.9.11.2895-2909 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Variant Forks - Motivations and Impediments
Businge, J., Zerouali, A., Decan, A., Mens, T., Demeyer, S., & De Roover, C. (2022) · 2022 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) · doi:10.1109/saner53432.2022.00105 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The Art of Bioinformatics Learning in Our Arabic World
Alsamman, A. M. (2019) · Highlights in BioScience · doi:10.36462/h.biosci.20193 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Chua, B. B., & Zhang, Y. (2020) · Australasian Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.3127/ajis.v24i0.1714 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Free Software, the Internet, and Global Communities of Resistance
Schoonmaker, S. (2018) · doi:10.4324/9781315672786 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
A theory of FLOSS projects and Open Source business models dynamics
Jullien, N., Viseur, R., & Zimmermann, J. (2025) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112383 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
The Right to a Contribution: An Exploratory Survey on How Organizations Address It
Poo-Caamaño, G., & Germán, D. M. (2015) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17837-0_15 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Defining an open source CAD workflow for experimental music and media arts
Merendino, N., & Rodà, A. (2021) · International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH) · doi:10.1145/3483529.3483715 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
GitHub OSS Governance File Dataset
Yan, Y., Frey, S., Zhang, A. X., Filkov, V., & Yin, L. (2023) · International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) · doi:10.1109/msr59073.2023.00089 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Changement de gouvernance et communautés open source : le cas du logiciel Claroline
Viseur, R., & Charleux, A. (2019) · Innovations · doi:10.3917/inno.058.0071 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Alvares, C. M. S., Grossi, L. B., Ramos, R. L., Magela, C. S., & Amaral, M. C. S. (2019) · International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer · doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.07.014 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Beyond Dependencies: The Role of Copy-Based Reuse in Open Source Software Development
Jahanshahi, M., Reid, D., & Mockus, A. (2025) · ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology · doi:10.1145/3715907 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Community engagement and the lifespan of open-source software projects
Kaushik, M., & Chahal, K. K. (2025) · Information and Software Technology · doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107914 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Fathoming Software Evangelists with the D-Index
Borreguero, F., Nitto, E. D., Stebliuk, D., Tamburri, D. A., & Zheng, C. (2015) · International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE) · doi:10.1109/chase.2015.26 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Social debt analytics for improving the management of software evolution tasks
Palomba, F., Serebrenik, A., & Zaidman, A. (2017) · TU/e Research Portal · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Sustainable digitalisation through different dimensions of openness
Lundell, B., & Gamalielsson, J. (2018) · International Symposium on Open Collaboration · doi:10.1145/3233391.3233527 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationOpen Source Communities and Forks: A Rereading in the Light of Albert Hirschman's Writings
Viseur, R., & Charleux, A. (2021) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-75251-4_6 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Open Source Software Resilience Framework
Kritikos, A., & Stamelos, I. G. (2018) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92375-8_4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Wei, K., Crowston, K., & Eseryel, U. Y. (2021) · Internet Research · doi:10.1108/intr-03-2020-0112 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Meankaew, P., Lawpoolsri, S., Piyaphanee, W., Wansatid, P., Chaovalit, P., Lawawirojwong, S., & Kaewkungwal, J. (2022) · Tropical Diseases Travel Medicine and Vaccines · doi:10.1186/s40794-022-00174-6 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
eLearning and the Sustainable Campus
Stewart, B. G., & Khare, A. (2014) · World sustainability series · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08837-2_20 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Ikuine, F., & FUJITA, H. (2014) · Annals of Business Administrative Science · doi:10.7880/abas.13.283 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
A resilience‐based framework for assessing the evolution of open source software projects
Kritikos, A., & Stamelos, I. G. (2023) · Journal of Software Evolution and Process · doi:10.1002/smr.2597 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Software evolution: the lifetime of fine-grained elements
Spinellis, D. D., Λουρίδας, Π., & Kechagia, M. (2021) · PeerJ Computer Science · doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.372 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Structural Analysis of Collaboration Network in OSS Communities∗
Liu, P., & Gui, L. (2021) · International Conference on Data Science and Information Technology (DSIT) · doi:10.1145/3478905.3478923 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Gakh, D. B. (2021) · Lecture notes in business information processing · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-71846-6_7 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Does the first response matter for future contributions? A study of first contributions
Assavakamhaenghan, N., Wattanakriengkrai, S., Shimada, N., Kula, R. G., Ishio, T., & Matsumoto, K. (2023) · Empirical Software Engineering · doi:10.1007/s10664-023-10299-7 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Finding Collaborations based on Co-Changed Files
Constantino, K. F., & Figueiredo, E. (2023) · doi:10.5753/sbsc_estendido.2023.229735 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Sustaining Scientific Open-Source Software Ecosystems: Challenges, Practices, and Opportunities
Sun, J. (2024) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (ICSE-Companion) · doi:10.1145/3639478.3639805 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Towards Understanding Developers’ Collaborative Behavior in Open Source Software Ecosystems
Liu, Y., He, P., Wu, G., & Li, Y. (2017) · Journal of Software · doi:10.17706/jsw.12.6.393-405 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Montes, F. J. R., Bueno, S., & Gallego, M. D. (2021) · Electronics · doi:10.3390/electronics10030277 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Recommending Collaborators Based on Co–Changed Files: A Controlled Experiment
Constantino, K. F., Prates, R. O., & Figueiredo, E. (2023) · doi:10.5753/sbsc.2023.229104 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Couldry, N., Rodríguez, C., Bolin, G., Cohen, J. E., Goggin, G. M., Kraidy, M. M., Iwabuchi, K., Lee, K.-S., Qiu, J. L., Volkmer, I., et al. (2018) · ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania) · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Forking From the Future: How an Interorganizational Network Learned Its Way to New Software Business
Järvenpää, S. L., & Välikangas, L. (2022) · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · doi:10.1109/tem.2022.3193959 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Advancing Sustainable Communities in Scientific Oss: a Replication Study With Astropy
Sun, J., Patil, A. A., Li, Y., Guo, J., & Zhou, S. (2025) · International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE) · doi:10.1109/chase66643.2025.00027 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Exploring the Effectiveness of Open‐Source Donation Platform: An Empirical Study on Opencollective
Zhang, S., Tang, E., Gao, X., Zhang, Z., Shan, Y., Zhang, H., He, Z., Zhao, J., & Li, X. (2025) · Journal of Software Evolution and Process · doi:10.1002/smr.70033 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-Reinforcing Cascades: A Spreading Model for Beliefs or Products of Varying Intensity or Quality
Hébert‐Dufresne, L., Lovato, J. L., Burgio, G., Gleeson, J. P., Redner, S., & Krapivsky, P. L. (2025) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/5mph-sws5 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
González-Blázquez, J. L., García-Holgado, A., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2025) · Array · doi:10.1016/j.array.2025.100595 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Beyond Speed: Engagement Sustains Lifespan
Kaushik, M., & Chahal, K. K. (2026) · Software Practice and Experience · doi:10.1002/spe.70068 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gamalielsson, J., & Lundell, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Skövde (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Gamalielsson, Jonas
- Venue
- Journal of Systems and Software
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-03
- Volume
- 89
- Pages
- 128-145
- ISSN
- 0164-1212 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2029743492
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 6.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Systems and Software (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Keywords
- open source communities, software forks, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org, community sustainability, developer communities, project activity, long-term sustainability
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
