mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Applications of statistical causal inference in software engineering

arXiv 2211.11482 ↗First posted 21 Nov 2022cs.SE cs.AIcited by 12

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Abstract (arXiv)

This paper reviews existing work in software engineering that applies statistical causal inference methods. These methods aim at estimating causal effects from observational data. The review covers 32 papers published between 2010 and 2022. Our results show that the application of statistical causal inference methods is relatively recent and that the corresponding research community remains relatively fragmented.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 31 of its 127 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Nov 2022.

Builds on

31 of 127 references.

References · 31

  1. 2017Meta-learners for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Machine Learningcited by 475
  2. 2021D'ya like DAGs? A Survey on Structure Learning and Causal Discoverycited by 209
  3. 2020A Survey on Causal Inferencecited by 202
  4. 2019Causality matters in medical imagingcited by 193
  5. 2022Causal Machine Learning: A Survey and Open Problemscited by 107
  6. 2020DoWhy: An End-to-End Library for Causal Inferencecited by 92
  7. 2022Causality-based Neural Network Repaircited by 44
  8. 2021Causal Inference for Time series Analysis: Problems, Methods and Evaluationcited by 42
  9. 2022Causal Fairness Analysiscited by 42
  10. 2021From Verification to Causality-based Explicationscited by 12
  11. 2022Unicorn: Reasoning about Configurable System Performance through the lens of Causalitycited by 12
  12. 2021An Influence-based Approach for Root Cause Alarm Discovery in Telecom Networkscited by 10
19 more
  1. 2020Causality-Guided Adaptive Interventional Debuggingcited by 9
  2. 2021Improving Fault Localization by Integrating Value and Predicate Based Causal Inference Techniquescited by 8
  3. 2022PerfCE: Performance Debugging on Databases with Chaos Engineering-Enhanced Causality Analysiscited by 8
  4. 2017Evolution of statistical analysis in empirical software engineering research: Current state and steps forwardcited by 5
  5. 2022Testing Causality in Scientific Modelling Softwarecited by 5
  6. 2021A causal learning framework for the analysis and interpretation of COVID-19 clinical datacited by 4
  7. 2013Causal Modelingcited by 3
  8. 2017Inforence: Effective Fault Localization Based on Information-Theoretic Analysis and Statistical Causal Inferencecited by 3
  9. 2020Computational Causal Inferencecited by 3
  10. 2020An empirical study of Linespots: A novel past-fault algorithmcited by 2
  11. 2021Effectively Sampling Higher Order Mutants Using Causal Effectcited by 2
  12. 2021Bayesian propensity score matching in automotive embedded software engineeringcited by 2
  13. 2016Causal inference for data-driven debugging and decision making in cloud computingcited by 1
  14. 2017ACDC: Altering Control Dependence Chains for Automated Patch Generationcited by 1
  15. 2019Causality Analysis for Concurrent Reactive Systems (Extended Abstract)cited by 1
  16. 2019Bayesian data analysis in empirical software engineering---The case of missing datacited by 1
  17. 2021Causal Program Dependence Analysiscited by 1
  18. 2022On the Use of Causal Graphical Models for Designing Experiments in the Automotive Domaincited by 1
  19. 2022Bayesian causal inference in automotive software engineering and online evaluationcited by 1

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 6; 2024: 2; 2025: 1; 2026: 3.

12 papers.

  1. 2023Benchmarking and Explaining Large Language Model-based Code Generation: A Causality-Centric Approachcited by 15
  2. 2023DRCFS: Doubly Robust Causal Feature Selectioncited by 12
  3. 2024A Comprehensive Survey on Root Cause Analysis in (Micro) Services: Methodologies, Challenges, and Trendscited by 10
  4. 2023Dataflow graphs as complete causal graphscited by 5
  5. 2024Causal Reasoning in Software Quality Assurance: A Systematic Reviewcited by 3
  6. 2023Enabling Runtime Verification of Causal Discovery Algorithms with Automated Conditional Independence Reasoning (Extended Version)cited by 2
  7. 2023Causal fault localisation in dataflow systemscited by 1
  8. 2025Your Assumed DAG is Wrong and Here's How To Deal With Itcited by 1
  9. 2023CausalOps -- Towards an Industrial Lifecycle for Causal Probabilistic Graphical Modelscited by 0
  10. 2026Causal Software Engineering: A Vision and Roadmapcited by 0
  11. 2026Reasoning Beyond Prediction: From Data-Driven to Causal Software Engineeringcited by 0
  12. 2026The Complexity Kink: A Prompt-Side Structural Complexity Index for Code-Generation Reliabilitycited by 0