| # | Title | Journal | Year | Citations |
|---|
| 1 | A Complexity Measure | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1976 | 4,267 |
| 2 | A metrics suite for object oriented design | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1994 | 4,024 |
| 3 | The model checker SPIN | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1997 | 2,756 |
| 4 | QoS-aware middleware for Web services composition | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2004 | 2,304 |
| 5 | An Intrusion-Detection Model | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1987 | 2,262 |
| 6 | Program Slicing | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1984 | 2,125 |
| 7 | Software Engineering Economics | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1984 | 1,575 |
| 8 | A classification and comparison framework for software architecture description languages | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2000 | 1,348 |
| 9 | A validation of object-oriented design metrics as quality indicators | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1996 | 1,257 |
| 10 | CCFinder: a multilinguistic token-based code clone detection system for large scale source code | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 1,246 |
| 11 | An Analysis and Survey of the Development of Mutation Testing | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2011 | 1,135 |
| 12 | Testing Software Design Modeled by Finite-State Machines | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1978 | 1,099 |
| 13 | Software Function, Source Lines of Code, and Development Effort Prediction: A Software Science Validation | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1983 | 1,077 |
| 14 | Preliminary guidelines for empirical research in software engineering | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 1,065 |
| 15 | Prioritizing test cases for regression testing | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2001 | 1,021 |
| 16 | System structure for software fault tolerance | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1975 | 1,019 |
| 17 | The TAME project: towards improvement-oriented software environments | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1988 | 971 |
| 18 | Data Mining Static Code Attributes to Learn Defect Predictors | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2007 | 940 |
| 19 | Benchmarking Classification Models for Software Defect Prediction: A Proposed Framework and Novel Findings | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2008 | 928 |
| 20 | Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1999 | 907 |
| 21 | Modeling and verification of time dependent systems using time Petri nets | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1991 | 872 |
| 22 | Understanding code mobility | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1998 | 856 |
| 23 | The “Physics” of Notations: Toward a Scientific Basis for Constructing Visual Notations in Software Engineering | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2009 | 853 |
| 24 | A survey of software refactoring | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2004 | 851 |
| 25 | STATEMATE: a working environment for the development of complex reactive systems | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1990 | 839 |
| 26 | A Systematic Literature Review on Fault Prediction Performance in Software Engineering | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2012 | 801 |
| 27 | Selecting Software Test Data Using Data Flow Information | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1985 | 798 |
| 28 | The AETG system: an approach to testing based on combinatorial design | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1997 | 790 |
| 29 | The N-Version Approach to Fault-Tolerant Software | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1985 | 769 |
| 30 | Simplifying and isolating failure-inducing input | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 765 |
| 31 | Distributed Simulation: A Case Study in Design and Verification of Distributed Programs | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1979 | 762 |
| 32 | Adaptive Service Composition in Flexible Processes | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2007 | 753 |
| 33 | Recovering traceability links between code and documentation | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 749 |
| 34 | A critique of software defect prediction models | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1999 | 745 |
| 35 | Proving the Correctness of Multiprocess Programs | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1977 | 730 |
| 36 | A Methodology for Collecting Valid Software Engineering Data | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1984 | 725 |
| 37 | Dynamically discovering likely program invariants to support program evolution | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2001 | 724 |
| 38 | Estimating software project effort using analogies | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1997 | 721 |
| 39 | Automated software test data generation | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1990 | 714 |
| 40 | Software Reliability Models: Assumptions, Limitations, and Applicability | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1985 | 706 |
| 41 | Adaptive load sharing in homogeneous distributed systems | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1986 | 706 |
| 42 | Empirical validation of object-oriented metrics on open source software for fault prediction | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2005 | 705 |
| 43 | Test case prioritization: a family of empirical studies | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 703 |
| 44 | An empirical study of speed and communication in globally distributed software development | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2003 | 700 |
| 45 | Representing and using nonfunctional requirements: a process-oriented approach | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1992 | 684 |
| 46 | A taxonomy of scheduling in general-purpose distributed computing systems | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1988 | 683 |
| 47 | GenProg: A Generic Method for Automatic Software Repair | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2012 | 673 |
| 48 | A hierarchical model for object-oriented design quality assessment | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 2002 | 666 |
| 49 | Structured Analysis (SA): A Language for Communicating Ideas | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1977 | 657 |
| 50 | Empirical Studies of Programming Knowledge | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 1984 | 638 |
