Developer Perspectives on REST API Usability: A Study of REST API Guidelines — Replication Package

REST API Interview Study – Replication Package

Overview

This package contains the interview guides and transcripts of questions used in our study on REST API guidelines, usability, and development practices. The materials are provided to support transparency and reproducibility of our research.

Note: To protect participant confidentiality, all interview transcripts have been redacted to remove organizational identifiers and proprietary details. Questions are provided for contextual understanding, but may not reflect the full scope of each interview.

Package Structure

guides/

│── Interview-Guide-original.pdf # Original German interview guide (initial version)

│── Interview-Guide-en-translation.pdf # English translation of the initial interview guide

│── Interview-Guide_end_version-original.pdf # Original German interview guide (refined final version)

│── Interview-Guide_end_version-en-translation.pdf # English translation of the final refined interview guide

│

interviews/

│── interview0.pdf # Transcript of trial interview questions (German + English translation)

│── interview1.pdf # Transcript of Interview 1 questions (German + English translation)

│── interview2.pdf # Transcript of Interview 2 questions (German + English translation)

│── ...

Files and Contents

guides/

Interview-Guide-[original/en-translation].pdf: Initial questions of the interview guide (Original German version and English translation).

Interview-Guide_end_version-[original/en-translation].pdf: Final refined questions of the interview guide (Original German version and English translation).

interviews/

interview0.pdf: Transcript of questions from the trial interview (German/English).

interview[1-N].pdf: Transcripts of questions asked in each interview (German/English).

Usage Guidelines

Citation

If you use these materials in your research, please cite our work:

Sven Peldszus, Jan Rutemkolk, Marcel Heide, Jan Sollmann, Benjamin Klatt, Frank Köhne, Thorsten Berger. 2026. Developer Perspectives on REST API Usability: A Study of REST API Guidelines. In 34th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion '26), July 05–09, 2026, Montreal, QC, Canada. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 12 pages. [https://doi.org/10.1145/3803437.3805267](https://doi.org/10.1145/3803437.3805267)

BibTeX:

@inproceedings{Peldszus2026REST,

author = {Sven Peldszus and Jan Rutemkolk and Marcel Heide and Jan Sollmann and Benjamin Klatt and Frank Köhne and Thorsten Berger},

title = {{Developer Perspectives on REST API Usability: A Study of REST API Guidelines}},

booktitle = {Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion '26)},

year = {2026},

doi = {10.1145/3803437.3805267},

}

Confidentiality

 Do not attempt to infer participant identities or organizational details from the transcripts.

Questions are provided for contextual understanding and methodological transparency only.

Reuse

You are free to adapt the interview guides for your own research, provided you cite our work.

Transcripts of questions are for reference only and should not be used to draw conclusions about individual participants.

Ethical Considerations

Informed Consent: All participants consented to the use of their interview data for research purposes, under the condition that their identities and organizational details remain confidential.

Redaction Process: Questions were reviewed to remove or generalize any details that could reveal participant identities or proprietary information.

Contact

For questions or clarifications about this replication package, please contact:

Sven Peldszus ([e-mail])

Thorsten Berger ([e-mail])