{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,14]],"date-time":"2026-01-14T16:51:17Z","timestamp":1768409477795,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]],"date-time":"2025-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761782400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.springernature.com\/gp\/researchers\/text-and-data-mining"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]],"date-time":"2025-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761782400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.springernature.com\/gp\/researchers\/text-and-data-mining"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Software Qual J"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"DOI":"10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]],"date-time":"2025-10-30T09:07:59Z","timestamp":1761815279000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["EAFL: an effective combination of features for fault localization in evolving programs"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"33","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-5530-1310","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Faeze","family":"Aghazade-Par","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4964-992X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mojtaba","family":"Vahidi-Asl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"9732_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Abreu, R., Zoeteweij, P., & Van Gemund, A. J. (2006). An evaluation of similarity coefficients for software fault localization. 12th Pacific Rim International Symposium on Dependable Computing (PRDC\u201906), 39\u201346. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/PRDC.2006.18","DOI":"10.1109\/PRDC.2006.18"},{"key":"9732_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Abreu, R., Zoeteweij, P., & Van Gemund, A. J. (2009). Spectrum-based multiple fault localization. IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, 88\u201399. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ASE.2009.25","DOI":"10.1109\/ASE.2009.25"},{"key":"9732_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2020.106474","author":"R Almhana","year":"2020","unstructured":"Almhana, R., Kessentini, M., & Mkaouer, W. (2020). Method-Level bug localization using hybrid Multi-objective search. Information and Software Technology. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2020.106474","journal-title":"Information and Software Technology"},{"key":"9732_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"172296","DOI":"10.1109\/access.2020.3025460","volume":"8","author":"Z Cui","year":"2020","unstructured":"Cui, Z., Jia, M., Chen, X., Zheng, L., & Liu, X. (2020). Improving software fault localization by combining spectrum and mutation. IEEE Access, 8, 172296\u2013172307. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/access.2020.3025460","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"9732_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cola.2021.101064","volume":"66","author":"A Dutta","year":"2021","unstructured":"Dutta, A., Srivastava, S. S., Godboley, S., & Mohapatra, D. P. (2021). Combi-FL: Neural network and SBFL-based fault localization using mutation analysis. Journal of Computer Languages, 66, Article 101064. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cola.2021.101064","journal-title":"Journal of Computer Languages"},{"key":"9732_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2021.106512","volume":"133","author":"D Ghosh","year":"2021","unstructured":"Ghosh, D., & Singh, J. (2021). Spectrum-based multi-fault localization using chaotic genetic algorithm. Information and Software Technology, 133, Article 106512. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2021.106512","journal-title":"Information and Software Technology"},{"key":"9732_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ginelli, D., Riganelli, O., Micucci, D., & Mariani, L. (2021). Exception-Driven Fault Localization for Automated Program Repair. In 2021 IEEE 21st International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security (QRS), 598\u2013607. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/qrs54544.2021.00070","DOI":"10.1109\/qrs54544.2021.00070"},{"issue":"3","key":"9732_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1529","DOI":"10.32604\/IASC.2022.021163","volume":"31","author":"N Islam","year":"2022","unstructured":"Islam, N. (2022). A learning-based fault localization approach using subset of likely and dynamic invariants. Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, 31(3), 1529\u20131546. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.32604\/IASC.2022.021163","journal-title":"Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing"},{"key":"9732_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Jones, J. A., & Harrold, M. J. (2005). Empirical evaluation of the tarantula automatic fault-localization technique. In Proceedings of the 20th IEEE\/ACM international Conference on Automated software engineering, 273\u2013282. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/1101908.1101949","DOI":"10.1145\/1101908.1101949"},{"key":"9732_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Just, R., Jalali, D., & Ernst, M. D. (2014). Defects4J: A database of existing faults to enable controlled testing studies for java programs. Proceedings of the 2014 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, 437\u2013440. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/2610384.2628055","DOI":"10.1145\/2610384.2628055"},{"key":"9732_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck, Y., Henderson, T. A., & Podgurski, A. (2021). Improving fault localization by integrating value and predicate based causal inference techniques. In 2021 IEEE\/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 649\u2013660. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icse43902.2021.00066","DOI":"10.1109\/icse43902.2021.00066"},{"key":"9732_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2020.110661","volume":"168","author":"Z Li","year":"2020","unstructured":"Li, Z., Wang, H., & Liu, Y. (2020). Hmer: A hybrid mutation execution reduction approach for mutation-based fault localization. Journal of Systems and Software, 168, Article 110661. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jss.2020.110661","journal-title":"Journal of Systems and Software"},{"key":"9732_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Li, Y., Wang, S., & Nguyen, T. (2021). Fault localization with code coverage representation learning. In 2021 IEEE\/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 661\u2013673. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icse43902.2021.00067","DOI":"10.1109\/icse43902.2021.00067"},{"key":"9732_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"82577","DOI":"10.1109\/access.2021.3086878","volume":"9","author":"CT Lin","year":"2021","unstructured":"Lin, C. T., Chen, W. Y., & Intasara, J. (2021). A framework for improving fault localization effectiveness based on fuzzy expert system. IEEE Access\u202f: Practical Innovations, Open Solutions, 9, 82577\u201382596. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/access.2021.3086878","journal-title":"IEEE Access : Practical Innovations, Open Solutions"},{"key":"9732_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Liu, X., Liu, Y., Li, Z., & Zhao, R. (2017). Fault classification oriented spectrum based fault localization. In 2017 IEEE 41st Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), 1, 256\u2013261. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/COMPSAC.2017.125","DOI":"10.1109\/COMPSAC.2017.125"},{"key":"9732_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Lou, Y., Zhu, Q., Dong, J., Li, X., Sun, Z., Hao, D., & Zhang, L. (2021). Boosting coverage-based fault localization via graph-based representation learning. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, 664\u2013676. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3468264.3468580","DOI":"10.1145\/3468264.3468580"},{"issue":"10","key":"9732_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"11068","DOI":"10.1007\/s10489-021-02954-7","volume":"52","author":"A Majd","year":"2022","unstructured":"Majd, A., Vahidi-Asl, M., Khalilian, A., & Bagheri, B. (2022). ConsilientSFL: Using a preferential voting system to generate combinatorial ranking metrics for spectrum-based fault localization. Applied Intelligence, 52(10), 11068\u201311088. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10489-021-02954-7","journal-title":"Applied Intelligence"},{"key":"9732_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cola.2019.03.006","volume":"53","author":"A Majd","year":"2019","unstructured":"Majd, A., Vahidi-Asl, M., Khalilian, A., Baraani-Dastjerdi, A., & Zamani, B. (2019). Code4bench: A multidimensional benchmark of codeforces data for different program analysis techniques. Journal of Computer Languages, 53, 38\u201352. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cola.2019.03.006","journal-title":"Journal of Computer Languages"},{"key":"9732_CR19","unstructured":"Planning, S. (2002). The economic impacts of inadequate infrastructure for software testing. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1(2002), from https:\/\/www.nist.gov\/system\/files\/documents\/2021\/03\/24\/econImpactSumm.v23.pdf\/"},{"key":"9732_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10515-023-00383-z","volume":"30","author":"J Qian","year":"2023","unstructured":"Qian, J., Ju, X., & Chen, X. (2023). GNet4FL: Effective fault localization via graph convolutional neural network. Automated Software Engineering, 30, Article 16. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10515-023-00383-z","journal-title":"Automated Software Engineering"},{"key":"9732_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Sohn, J., An, G., Hong, J., Hwang, D., & Yoo, S. (2021). Assisting bug report assignment using automated fault localisation: An industrial case study. In 2021 14th IEEE Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), 284\u2013294. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icst49551.2021.00041","DOI":"10.1109\/icst49551.2021.00041"},{"key":"9732_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Sohn, J., & Yoo, S. (2017). Fluccs: Using code and change metrics to improve fault localization. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, 273\u2013283. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3092703.3092717","DOI":"10.1145\/3092703.3092717"},{"key":"9732_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-020-09931-7","volume":"26","author":"E Soremekun","year":"2021","unstructured":"Soremekun, E., Kirschner, L., B\u00f6hme, M., & Zeller, A. (2021). Locating faults with program slicing: An empirical Analysis. Empirical Software Engineering, 26, 1\u201345. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10664-020-09931-7","journal-title":"Empirical Software Engineering"},{"issue":"11","key":"9732_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2348","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2019.2948158","volume":"47","author":"M Wen","year":"2019","unstructured":"Wen, M., Chen, J., Tian, Y., Wu, R., Hao, D., Han, S., & Cheung, S. C. (2019). Historical spectrum based fault localization. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 47(11), 2348\u20132368. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TSE.2019.2948158","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering"},{"key":"9732_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Widyasari, R., Ang, J. W., Nguyen, T. G., Sharma, N., & Lo, D. (2024). Demystifying faulty code with LLM: Step-by-step reasoning for explainable fault localization. ArXiv Preprint arXiv:240310507. https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2403.10507","DOI":"10.1109\/SANER60148.2024.00064"},{"issue":"1","key":"9732_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"290","DOI":"10.1109\/TR.2013.2285319","volume":"63","author":"WE Wong","year":"2014","unstructured":"Wong, W. E., Debroy, V., Gao, R., & Li, Y. (2014). The dstar method for effective software fault localization. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 63(1), 290\u2013308. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TR.2013.2285319","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Reliability"},{"issue":"8","key":"9732_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"707","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2016.2521368","volume":"42","author":"WE Wong","year":"2016","unstructured":"Wong, W. E., Gao, R., Li, Y., Abreu, R., & Wotawa, F. (2016). A survey on software fault localization. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 42(8), 707\u2013740. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TSE.2016.2521368","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering"},{"key":"9732_CR28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Wong, E., Wei, T., Qi, Y., & Zhao, L. (2008). A crosstab-based statistical method for effective fault localization. In 2008 1st international conference on software testing, verification, and validation, 42\u201351. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ICST.2008.65","DOI":"10.1109\/ICST.2008.65"},{"key":"9732_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2021.106653","volume":"139","author":"X Xiao","year":"2021","unstructured":"Xiao, X., Pan, Y., Zhang, B., Hu, G., Li, Q., & Lu, R. (2021). ALBFL: A novel neural ranking model for software fault localization via combining static and dynamic features. Information and Software Technology, 139, Article 106653. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2021.106653","journal-title":"Information and Software Technology"},{"key":"9732_CR30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Xu, X., Zou, C., & Xue, J. (2020). Every mutation should be rewarded: Boosting fault localization with mutated predicates. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), 196\u2013207. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icsme46990.2020.00028","DOI":"10.1109\/icsme46990.2020.00028"},{"key":"9732_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Yang, Y., Deng, F., Yan, Y., & Gao, F. (2019). A fault localization method based on conditional probability. In 2019 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security Companion (QRS-C), 213\u2013218. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/QRS-C.2019.00050","DOI":"10.1109\/QRS-C.2019.00050"},{"key":"9732_CR32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Yang, S., Cao, J., Zeng, H., Shen, B., & Zhong, H. (2021a). Locating faulty methods with a mixed RNN and attention model. In 2021 IEEE\/ACM 29th International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), 207\u2013218. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icpc52881.2021.00028","DOI":"10.1109\/icpc52881.2021.00028"},{"issue":"1","key":"9732_CR33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11704-019-9176-z","volume":"15","author":"B Yang","year":"2021","unstructured":"Yang, B., Yu, Q., Liu, H., He, Y., & Liu, C. (2021b). Software debugging analysis based on developer behavior data. Frontiers of Computer Science, 15(1), Article 151203. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11704-019-9176-z","journal-title":"Frontiers of Computer Science"},{"issue":"3","key":"9732_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1021","DOI":"10.1109\/TR.2020.2982975","volume":"69","author":"L Zhang","year":"2020","unstructured":"Zhang, L., Li, Z., Feng, Y., Zhang, Z., Chan, W. K., Zhang, J., & Zhou, Y. (2020). Improving fault-localization accuracy by referencing debugging history to alleviate structure bias in code suspiciousness. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 69(3), 1021\u20131049. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TR.2020.2982975","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Reliability"},{"issue":"6","key":"9732_CR35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1089","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2019.2911283","volume":"47","author":"M Zhang","year":"2019","unstructured":"Zhang, M., Li, Y., Li, X., Chen, L., Zhang, Y., Zhang, L., & Khurshid, S. (2019). An empirical study of boosting spectrum-based fault localization via pagerank. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 47(6), 1089\u20131113. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TSE.2019.2911283","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering"}],"container-title":["Software Quality Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,12]],"date-time":"2026-01-12T07:46:56Z","timestamp":1768204016000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["9732"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11219-025-09732-5","relation":{},"ISSN":["0963-9314","1573-1367"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0963-9314","type":"print"},{"value":"1573-1367","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]]},"assertion":[{"value":"26 January 2025","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"8 October 2025","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"30 October 2025","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"All authors have given their consent for the publication of this work.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"34"}}