Process for helping researchers contact CPython developers for the purpose of running studies

Core Development
1

I recently received an email from a PhD student, Md. Niaz Morshed, to python-dev-owners, asking for help and guidance on how to reach out to Python core developers for the purpose of running an anonymous survey on topics around open source development.

Since the list has been replaced with this Discourse topic, I’m opening up a new topic here to discuss the best way to move forward and perhaps find a generally accepted process for researchers to start such surveys and reach out to core devs.

Here’s his email (published with his consent):

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope you are doing well. My name is Md Niaz Morshed, and I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama. I am currently conducting an IRB-approved research study titled “Understanding Information Needs When Looking for Security Issues During Code Review in Open-Source Software: A survey.”

The goal of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges developers face when reviewing code for potential security issues and to examine the types of information, tools, and practices that support their efforts. As part of this work, I am seeking input from contributors who participate in code review activities within open-source projects.

I would like guidance on the most suitable way to share a brief, anonymous survey with contributors to this project. In particular, I would appreciate your advice on the following:

  • Whether there is a formal process or preferred channel for contacting contributors or maintainers for research participation;

  • Whether a contributor mailing list or contact mechanism exists and may be used for this purpose;

  • Whether posting a survey link in a public discussion or issue would be appropriate under the project’s community guidelines.

I am committed to conducting this research in a way that respects the norms, values, and privacy of the open-source community. Your feedback and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Kind Regards
Niaz

Since most of us read this topic, perhaps the easiest process would be to suggest to ask researchers to open up a topic here, describing the survey and study and pointing to the details of how to participate.

We’d then only have to document this somewhere on the topic (either a pinned message at the top or added to the currently pinned About message.

Happy to hear your thoughts.

Once we have a process agreed upon, we can then use Niaz study to test drive it :slight_smile:

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2

I would suggest in the first instance that we avoid (as far as we can) inviting surveys just to solicit responses from core devs. There are few good reasons not to broaden the population to contributors to the project, or to Python in open source at large.

I think the mechanism suggested of inviting people to create a topic here on Discourse is fine, though we may need a new category/tag for it, depending on whether research like this is ‘on topic’ for e.g. Core Development. We should probably also ask that any researchers who want to engage with us in gathering primary data also come back to share their results and conclusions.

A

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3

Ok, since I haven’t heard any other feedback, I suggest we use the following process for researchers to follow:

How to post a Python research study request to this forum

  • open up a topic on this forum, in a category suitable for the intended audience, e.g.
  • reference this topic to help people understand why you are posting the study request
  • include some background details about yourself or the group behind the study
  • describe the survey and study
  • point to the details of how to participate in the study
  • provide details on how to access the results of the study and when to expect them
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