On Academic Age Aspect and Discovering the Golden Age in Software Engineering

Abstract

Background: Physical aspects are essential human factors that play a key role in a researcher's career and development. Aging is one of the most important physical aspects that can impact the productivity of a researcher (e.g., in terms of publications). In parallel, aging adds experience and proficiency on the scientific research work, such as assuring the quality and reliability of research. Objective: We aim to understand the impact of aging and the academic age on research publications productivity of research software engineers - the people actively developing software or conducting research in an academic research environment - and explore their Golden Age aspect. Method: We performed a first study on the age distribution of researchers who have published at three famous and prestigious software-engineering conferences: ASE, ESEC/FSE, and ICSE, including 4,620 research-track papers and their 7,337 authors. Results: The results suggest that the academic productivity is maximized at year 15 (Golden Age) and it is held roughly constant for further 15 years before it declines. The results also find, that half authors disappear after their first publication year, reflecting dropout rates that academia suffers from. Conclusion: Through this pilot study, we share insights on the age distribution, and thus representation, of software-engineering researchers at major conferences and try to understand whether certain groups of researchers are over- or underrepresented.