Foreword to the SANER 2015 special issue

We are delighted to present the JSEP special issue of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER 2015)! The product of the merger of the popular CSMR and WCRE conferences, SANER, has become one of the major international venues for research on understanding software, ie, how it is developed, built and maintained. Paper topics vary from empirical studies on re(verse)‐engineering, over program analysis and comprehension, to software quality and evolution of cloud systems. The SANER 2015 was the first postmerger edition under the new “SANER”moniker and took place in snowy Montreal (Quebec, Canada) in the 2nd week of March, 2015. Out of 144 full paper submissions, 46 papers were accepted, yielding an acceptance ratio of 31.9%. These papers were presented in the discussion‐oriented style inherited from SANER’s WCRE roots, valuing medium length presentations and extensive group discussions over long talks. A record attendance of 221 participants made sure those group discussions covered a wide range of topics, providing ample, constructive feedback to young and established SANER researchers alike. One SANER 2015 paper in particular was singled out by the program committee and awarded the best paper award. However, competition was strong, with 4 other papers ending close in the best paper award selection. The resulting set of 5 papers subsequently were invited for this JSEP special issue, with the idea of extending their excellent paper with at least 33% new content, in the form of additional research questions, case studies, discussion, etc. Four of the 5 papers have accepted our invitation. The submissions underwent up to 3 rounds of review, in which the submissions progressively improved in quality. For each paper, 2 of the original SANER 2015 reviewers were reinvited, together with 1 additional reviewer. We would like to thank the authors of these papers, as well as the reviewers, for the excellent collaboration and interaction, helping us bring a solid and high‐quality special issue to the reader, ie, you! Of course, we would also like to thank JSEP for the support and opportunity to bring extended versions of SANER 2015 papers to its reader base, as well as all SANER 2015 participants and committee members. The accepted papers cover a wide range of topics: