Repository of software engineering data
On an unrelated Google expedition, I came across the ISBSSG, the International Software Standards Benchmarking Group. Their mission is to collect software and IT project data for comparison and metric purposes.
This seems like a great idea, and although I can’t find details, the fees for academic access are listed as ‘nominal’. Has anyone had experience with this group? I wonder what the data are like, in terms of representativeness, accuracy, usability.
Such a repository would provide some solution to the problem of data independence (e.g., not IBM-sponsored) and access.
On a somewhat related note: a recent study of cancer experiments showed that of the clinical trials registered with the FDA (which is mandatory), only 18% were reported in academic journals. Of the industry-sponsored trials, 75% were positive findings. While this seems bad, I bet the majority of unpublished studies were rejected by the peer-review process as not worth publishig. Still, the negative results ought to be published somewhere, even as a one-page report (via the excellent ‘Bad Science‘ blog).
