CRII: SHF: Improving the Retention of Newcomers in FLOSS Projects With Useful and Timely Code Reviews

尽管流行的自由/Libre开源软件(FLOSS)项目(例如，ApacheLinux和Android)吸引了大量积极主动的志愿者，但这些潜在的参与者中的大多数都没有成为长期的贡献者。根据最近的研究结果，新来者报告的最常见的障碍之一是对他们提交的代码更改的延迟或不公平反馈。这一障碍通常源于新人难以找到合适的评审员，这些评审员在变更领域经验丰富，能够撰写有用的评论。由于新来者往往需要等待2-6倍的时间才能获得对他们的更改的评论，因此他们经常感到沮丧，放弃了他们的入职努力。为了解决这个问题，该项目旨在构建RevRanker，这是一个自动化模型，可以建议能够提供及时和有用的审查的审阅者。为了实现这个目标，该项目将首先使用混合研究方法建立对FLOSS项目中有用的代码审查的理论理解。然后，这种理解将被用来训练和评估RevEval，这是一个预测代码审查有用性的自动化模型。使用RevEval模型以及利用所审查文件的多个历史维度，将开发和评估RevRanker。最后，将开发一个插件，将RevRanker模型与流行的代码审查管理系统相结合，并评估其有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Although popular Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects (e.g., Apache, Linux, and Android) attract plenty of motivated volunteers, most of these prospective joiners fail to become long-term contributors. According to the results of recent studies, one of the most common barriers reported by the newcomers is delayed or unfair feedback for their submitted code changes. This barrier often stems from a newcomer's struggle to identify suitable reviewers, who are experienced in the change areas and are capable of writing useful reviews. Since newcomers often have to wait 2-6 times longer than a long-term contributor to get reviews for their changes, they often become frustrated and abandon their on-boarding efforts. To address this issue, this project aims to build RevRanker, an automated model that can suggest reviewers who can provide timely and useful reviews.Toward this goal, this project will first build a theoretical understanding of useful code reviews in FLOSS projects using a mixed research method. This understanding will be then used to train and evaluate RevEval, an automated model to predict the usefulness of code reviews. Using the RevEval model as well as leveraging multiple historical dimensions of the files under review, RevRanker will be developed and evaluated. Finally, a plugin will be developed to integrate the RevRanker model with a popular code-review management system as well as to evaluate its effectiveness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.