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A German Gold-Standard Dataset for Sentiment Analysis in Software Engineering

Martin Obaidi*, Marc Herrmann, Elisa Schmid, Raymond Ochsner, Kurt Schneider, Jil Klünder

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference contributionResearchpeer review

Abstract

Sentiment analysis is an essential technique for investigating the emotional climate within developer teams, contributing to both team productivity and project success. Existing sentiment analysis tools in software engineering primarily rely on English or non-German gold-standard datasets. To address this gap, our work introduces a German dataset of 5,949 unique developer statements, extracted from the German developer forum Android-Hilfe.de. Each statement was annotated with one of six basic emotions, based on the emotion model by Shaver et al. [1], by four German-speaking computer science students. Evaluation of the annotation process showed high interrater agreement and reliability. These results indicate that the dataset is sufficiently valid and robust to support sentiment analysis in the German-speaking software engineering community. Evaluation with existing German sentiment analysis tools confirms the lack of domain-specific solutions for software engineering. We also discuss approaches to optimize annotation and present further use cases for the dataset.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2025 IEEE 33rd International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops, REW 2025
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages107-114
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9798331538347
ISBN (Print)979-8-3315-3835-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2025
Event33rd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops, REW 2025 - Valencia, Spain
Duration: 1 Sept 20255 Sept 2025

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops
ISSN (Print)2770-6826
ISSN (Electronic)2770-6834

Conference

Conference33rd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops, REW 2025
Abbreviated titleREW 2025
Country/TerritorySpain
CityValencia
Period1 Sept 20255 Sept 2025

Keywords

  • developer communication. machine learning
  • requirements engineering
  • sentiment analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Software
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Modelling and Simulation

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