Celebrating 10 years of Workshop on Social, Human, and Economic Aspects of Software (WASHES): Extended Results of a Scoping Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5753/isys.2026.6759Keywords:
WASHES, Scoping Review, Publications, Social, Economic, HumanAbstract
Software systems are fundamentally socio-technical phenomena, shaped by human behaviors, organizational contexts, and economic factors, a perspective critical to Information Systems (IS). Since 2016, the Workshop on Social, Human, and Economic Aspects of Software Engineering (WASHES) has provided a dedicated venue for examining these dimensions within the software domain. Marking its tenth anniversary, this study presents a scoping review of WASHES publications from 2016 to 2025. Across ten editions, WASHES has published 116 papers authored by 351 researchers from 78 institutions, spanning 19 Brazilian states and five countries. We analyze publication trends, citation patterns, language distribution, thematic evolution, and award-winning papers. Our findings show that social perspectives are the most frequently addressed, followed by human and economic aspects, alongside a thematic shift from process- and artifact-centric concerns toward human-centered issues such as collaboration, experience, diversity, and accessibility. By consolidating these results, the study characterizes the evolution of WASHES as a venue concerned with socio-technical issues at the intersection of Software Engineering and IS, offering implications relevant to stakeholders interested in integrating human and organizational considerations into software and digital initiatives.
Downloads
References
Alter, S. (2013). Work system theory: overview of core concepts, extensions, and challenges for the future. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, page 72.
Ampatzoglou, A., Bibi, S., Avgeriou, P., Verbeek, M., and Chatzigeorgiou, A. (2019). Identifying, categorizing and mitigating threats to validity in software engineering secondary studies. Information and Software Technology, 106:201–230.
Araújo, A. A., Farias, I., Gonc¸alves, V., Santos, R., Viana, D., and Steinmacher, I. (2024). dataWASHES - Towards an Application Programming Interface of WASHES proceedings data. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software, pages 158–162. SBC.
Araujo, R., Ralha, C., Graeml, A., and Cidral, A. (2015). A comunidade de pesquisa em sistemas de informação no Brasil na perspectiva do simpósio brasileiro de sistemas de informação. iSys-Brazilian Journal of Information Systems, 8(1):5–17.
Arksey, H. and O’malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. International journal of social research methodology, 8(1):19–32.
Avgerou, C. (2001). The significance of context in information systems and organizational change. Information systems journal, 11(1):43–63.
Avgerou, C. (2008). Information systems in developing countries: a critical research review. Journal of information Technology, 23(3):133–146.
Beath, C., Berente, N., Gallivan, M. J., and Lyytinen, K. (2013). Expanding the frontiers of information systems research: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(4):4.
Benbasat, I. and Zmud, R. W. (2003). The identity crisis within the is discipline: Defining and communicating the discipline’s core properties. MIS quarterly, pages 183–194.
Bharadwaj, A. S. (2000). A resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: an empirical investigation. MIS quarterly, pages 169–196.
Boehm, B. W. (2002). Software engineering economics. Springer. Bogdan, S. S. C., Bernhaupt, P. F. R., and Winckler, M. (2019). Human-Centered Software Engineering. Springer.
Bostrom, R. P. and Heinen, J. S. (1977). Mis problems and failures: A socio-technical perspective. part i: The causes. MIS quarterly, pages 17–32.
Burton-Jones, A. and Straub Jr, D. W. (2006). Reconceptualizing system usage: An approach and empirical test. Information systems research, 17(3):228–246.
Celestino, M. S. and Valente, V. C. P. N. (2022). The digital exclusion and the commitment to the sustainable development goals in brazil. International Journal of Development Research (IJDR), 12.
Fitzgerald, B. (2024). Information systems and software engineering: the case for convergence. arXiv preprint [link].
Freire, E. S. S., Cedro, D. M., and de Barros Serra, A. (2018). An analysis of brazilian symposium on software quality (sbqs) retrospective, relevance, and trends in the past 5 years. In Proceedings of the XVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality, pages 31–40.
Gallus, J. and Frey, B. S. (2017). Awards as strategic signals. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(1):76–85.
Ghobadi, S. and Robey, D. (2017). Strategic signalling and awards: Investigation into the first decade of ais best publications awards. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(4):360–384.
Gomes, O., Miranda, E., e Silva, G. B., and Ara´ujo, A. A. (2024). Supplementary material. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17443480.
Gomes, O. S., Batista, E. M., Braga, G., Ara´ujo, A. A., et al. (2025). 10 years of workshop on social, human, and economics aspects of software (washes): Results of a scoping review. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES), pages 25–35. SBC.
Hyrynsalmi, S. M., Liebel, G., de Souza Santos, R., and Baltes, S. (2025). Not real or too soft? on the challenges of publishing interdisciplinary software engineering research. In 2025 IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS), pages 106–117. IEEE.
Iivari, J. and Lyytinen, K. (1999). Research on information systems development in scandinavia. Rethinking management information systems, pages 57–102.
Kuhn, T. S. (1997). The structure of scientific revolutions, volume 962. University of Chicago press Chicago.
Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J. P., and Brabston, M. (2014). Managment information systems-managing the digital firm. Pearson Publishing.
Lenberg, P., Feldt, R., and Wallgren, L. G. (2015). Behavioral software engineering: A definition and systematic literature review. Journal of Systems and software, 107:15–37.
Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., and O’brien, K. K. (2010). Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implementation science, 5(1):69.
Melville, N., Kraemer, K., and Gurbaxani, V. (2004). Information technology and organizational performance: An integrative model of it business value. MIS quarterly, pages 283–322.
Menolli, A., Coleti, T. A., and Morandini, M. (2023). Impact of remote work on software teams: A qualitative study. In Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES), pages 51–60. SBC.
Mumford, E. (2006). The story of socio-technical design: Reflections on its successes, failures and potential. Information systems journal, 16(4):317–342.
Munn, Z., Peters, M. D., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., and Aromataris, E. (2018). Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC medical research methodology, 18:1–7.
Nazar, N., Hu, Y., and Jiang, H. (2016). Summarizing software artifacts: A literature review. Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 31(5):883–909.
Nemer, D. and Hakken, D. (2016). Digital inequalities in brazil: A weberian analysis of technology use in the favelas. In Communication and Information Technologies Annual: Digital Empowerment: Opportunities and Challenges of Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 277–297. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Neves, V., Melo, S., and Garcés, L. (2023). 18+ years of brazilian symposium on information systems: Results of a scope review. In Anais do XIX Simpósio Brasileiro deSistemas de Informação, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Olbrich, S., Trauth, E. M., Niederman, F., and Gregor, S. (2015). Inclusive design in is: Why diversity matters. Association for Information Systems.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2000). Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organization science, 11(4):404–428.
Orlikowski, W. J. and Iacono, C. S. (2001). Desperately seeking the ‘IT’in IT research: A call to theorizing the IT artifact. Information Systems Research, 12(2):121–134.
Orlikowski, W. J. and Scott, S. V. (2008). 10 sociomateriality: challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Academy of Management annals, 2(1):433–474.
Pang, M.-S., Kankanhalli, A., Aanestad, M., Ram, S., and Maruping, L. M. (2024). Digital technologies and the advancement of social justice: A framework and agenda.
Peters, M., Marnie, C., Tricco, A., Pollock, D., Munn, Z., Alexander, L., Mcinerney, P., Godfrey, C., and Khalil, H. (2020). Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI evidence implementation, 19:3–10.
Santos, B. d. S. (2016). Epistemologies of the south and the future. From the European South: a transdisciplinary journal of postcolonial humanities, (1):17–29.
Sarker, S., Chatterjee, S., Xiao, X., and Elbanna, A. (2019). The sociotechnical axis of cohesion for the is discipline. MIS quarterly, 43(3):695–A5.
Smith, S. A. and Duncan, A. A. (2022). Systematic and scoping reviews: A comparison and overview. In Seminars in Vascular Surgery, volume 35, pages 464–469. Elsevier.
Sulastri, R., Janssen, M., van de Poel, I., and Ding, A. (2024). Transforming towards inclusion-by-design: Information system design principles shaping data-driven financial inclusiveness. Government Information Quarterly, 41(4):101979.
Tai, J. C., Wang, E. T., and Yeh, H.-Y. (2019). A study of is assets, is ambidexterity, and is alignment: the dynamic managerial capability perspective. Information & Management, 56(1):55–69.
Teece, D. J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic management journal, 28(13):1319–1350.
Trauth, E. (2017). A research agenda for social inclusion in information systems. ACM SIGMIS Database: the Database for Advances in Information Systems, 48(2):9–20.
Valaski, J., Stancke, W., Reinehr, S., and Malucelli, A. (2014). WER overview: Retrospective, trends and relevance. CLEI Electronic Journal, 17(3):4–4.
Venkatesh, V. and Thong, J. (2016). Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology:A synthesis and the road ahead. Journal of the association for Information Systems.
Walsham, G. (2012). Are we making a better world with icts? reflections on a future agenda for the is field. Journal of Information Technology, 27(2):87–93.
Zhang, P. and Li, N. (2005). The intellectual development of human-computer interaction research: A critical assessment of the mis literature (1990-2002). Journal of the Association for information Systems, 6(11):227–292.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 iSys - Journal of Information Systems
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
