一句话：系统调查软件工程五大期刊13年间对社会科学理论的使用，发现使用率极低且理论检验不足。
随着软件工程研究日益关注软件开发的心理、社会与管理层面，来自参考学科的社会科学理论对理解核心现象愈发重要，但其实际使用程度尚不明确。本文考察五种有影响力的软件工程期刊在13年间发表论文中对社会科学理论的使用，分析理论使用的程度、类型、方式与位置。结果显示：共出现87种不同理论，但使用社会科学理论的论文不足2%，多数理论仅被一篇论文使用，许多社会科学被忽视，且很少检验理论在软件工程情境中的适用性。作者指出，忽视相关理论可能削弱累积性知识构建，并导致对软件工程现象的过度简化。
As software engineering research becomes more concerned with the psychological, sociological and managerial aspects of software development, relevant theories from reference disciplines are increasingly important for understanding the field's core phenomena of interest. However, the degree to which software engineering research draws on relevant social sciences remains unclear. This study therefore investigates the use of social science theories in five influential software engineering journals over 13 years. It analyzes not only the extent of theory use but also what, how and where these theories are used. While 87 different theories are used, less than two percent of papers use a social science theory, most theories are used in only one paper, most social sciences are ignored, and the theories are rarely tested for applicability to software engineering contexts. Ignoring relevant social science theories may (1) undermine the community's ability to generate, elaborate and maintain a cumulative body of knowledge; and (2) lead to oversimplified models of software engineering phenomena. More attention to theory is needed for software engineering to mature as a scientific discipline.