Claims and beliefs about code clones: Do we agree as a community? A survey

Research on code clones and their impact on software development has been increasing in recent years. There are a number of potentially competing claims among members of the community. There is currently not enough empirical evidence to provide concrete information about these claims. This paper presents the results of a survey of members of the code clone community. The goal of the survey was to determine the level of agreement of community members regarding some key topics. While the results showed a good bit of agreement, there was no universal consensus on all topics. Survey respondents were not in complete agreement about the definitions of Type III and Type IV clones. The survey respondents were more uncertain about how developers behave when working with clones. From the survey it is clear that there are areas where more empirical research is needed to better understand how to effectively work with clones.