A Tool-Based Perspective on Software Code Maintainability Metrics: A Systematic Literature Review

Table 7

Metrics (suites) with citation count and score above the median.

Metric	Total mentions	Score
CC, McCabe’s cyclomatic complexity	14	12
CE, efferent coupling	3	3
CHANGE, number of lines changed in class	4	4
C&K, Chidamber and Kemerer suite	13+	11+
CLOC, comment lines of code	6	6
Halstead’s suite	6+	4+
JLOC, JavaDoc lines of code	3	3
LOC, lines of code	14	11
LCOM2, lack of cohesion in methods	3	3
MI, maintainability index	6	4
MPC, message passing coupling	4	4
NOM, number of methods	4	4
NPM, number of public methods	4	4
STAT, number of statements	4	4
WMC, McCabe’s weighted method count	7	7