{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,2]],"date-time":"2025-06-02T22:40:04Z","timestamp":1748904004602,"version":"3.41.0"},"publisher-location":"Cham","reference-count":13,"publisher":"Springer Nature Switzerland","isbn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"9783031945434"},{"type":"electronic","value":"9783031945441"}],"license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,1]],"date-time":"2025-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1735689600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,29]],"date-time":"2025-05-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1748476800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":148,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:p>Previous research has identified mutation testing as a promising technique for detecting unintended changes in test behavior during test code refactorings. Despite its theoretical support, the practical adoption of this approach has been hindered by a lack of corresponding tools. Consequently, these studies have been unable to fully validate the effectiveness of mutation testing as a guardrail to ensure the consistency of the refactored test behavior, leaving an in-depth empirical validation open for future research. To address this gap, this study examines , a tool developed as a reference implementation to support test refactoring by using mutation testing. We leverage  to validate the practical applicability of the mutation testing approach across diverse test refactoring scenarios. This evaluation uses a catalog of common test refactorings that reflect real-world practices. The results indicate that  effectively detects changes in test behavior in most cases, demonstrating the efficacy of mutation testing to identify problems during test code refactoring. However, the study also identifies limitations, particularly the occurrence of false negatives when refactorings modify the way tests handle dependencies. These findings highlight the potential of the approach and contribute to the state-of-the-art by identifying limitations that can be addressed in future studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-94544-1_12","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,28]],"date-time":"2025-05-28T12:13:19Z","timestamp":1748434399000},"page":"176-185","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Mutation Testing in\u00a0Test Code Refactoring: Leveraging Mutants to\u00a0Ensure Behavioral Consistency"],"prefix":"10.1007","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-9960-4729","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tiago Samuel Rodrigues","family":"Teixeira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2063-2959","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"F\u00e1bio Fagundes","family":"Silveira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5555-3487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eduardo Martins","family":"Guerra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"12_CR1","unstructured":"van Bladel, B., Demeyer, S.: Test refactoring: a research agenda. 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