The DEV community is a rich and underutilized data source for Software Engineering (SE) research. In my PhD, I've been using DEV articles since 2022 to build a conceptual framework of empathy in SE, capturing how empathy is perceived, practiced, and challenged across roles, tasks, and organizational settings. In this post, I’ll describe how to collect and analyze DEV.to content for research purposes, especially for those interested in the social dimensions of software work.
You’ll learn:
- Why DEV.to is a valuable source for qualitative studies
- How to extract articles using a Python script or Google Sheets
- A brief overview of how to conduct a qualitative analysis
- Links to open-access tools, scripts, and published studies
Whether you're a researcher, a student, or just curious about how developers’ voices can inform SE research, this post offers practical steps and reflections to help you get started.
The DEV platform, with its long-form posts written by developers, provides candid insights into how practitioners think, feel, collaborate, and grow. These reflections help us understand topics like empathy, well-being and mental health, inclusion, communication, and collaboration in real-world software practice.
DEV is not just a place for tutorials and code snippets! It's a vibrant community where developers openly share their experiences, struggles, and values, making it a valuable site for qualitative research.
Why DEV?
Unlike surveys or interviews, which may be shaped by researcher framing or social desirability bias, DEV posts represent voluntary, organic reflections. These narratives often cover deeply human experiences: burnout, team dynamics, empathy, mentorship, psychological safety, and more.
Grey Literature (GL), including blog posts, articles, and forum discussions, is a valuable source of data for SE researchers, especially in areas involving human and social dimensions.
 |
|---|
| The process to collect the web articles. Source |
How to Retrieve Articles from DEV?
I've used two methods to collect articles tagged with the keyword empathy.
1. Python Scraper:
You can clone and run our Python script from Zenodo:
python dev_scraper.py
📦 The scraper and full replication package are publicly available on Zenodo:
👉 https://zenodo.org/records/15800354
2. Google Sheets + IMPORTJSON.gs:
If you prefer a low-code approach, use the IMPORTJSON.gs script:
- Download the script here.
- Open a new Google Sheets document.
- Go to Extensions > Apps Script and paste the script code.
- Use the code below to pull articles tagged with empathy:
=ImportJSON("https://dev.to/api/articles?tag=empathy&per_page=1000")
- You can change the tag or increase the
per_pagevalue for broader queries.
Analyzing the Data
Once you have the articles, you can conduct a qualitative analysis process to explore themes, perceptions, and experiences, like this:
- Clean and prepare the data (remove duplicates, unrelated posts).
- Import into a qualitative tool (spreadsheets or tools like Atlas.ti, MAXQDA, or Taguette also work).
- Inductive coding to identify emerging themes.
- Synthesize themes to build conceptual categories (e.g., empathy practices, barriers, effects).
- Triangulate or validate with experts or additional sources.
This approach was adopted to build a framework of empathy in software engineering based on practitioners' own voices. 👉 Check it here.
Want to Go Further?
If you’re interested in how DEV data can be used in real research, here are the studies using articles from the DEV community to explore empathy in SE:
📝 Published Studies Using DEV as Data Source
A Thematic Synthesis on Empathy in Software Engineering based on the Practitioners' Perspective, SBES 2023
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1145/3613372.3613407Empathy and Its Effects on Software Practitioners’ Well-Being and Mental Health, IEEE Software, 2024
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2024.3377897Exploring Empathy in Software Engineering: Insights from a Grey Literature Analysis of Practitioners' Perspectives, TOSEM, 2025
🔗 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05325 (preprint)
📖 Related Research
If you're looking to explore Grey Literature and online communities as research data in SE, you can start with those studies:
- Mining DEV for social and technical insights about software development 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR52588.2021.00053
- What Evidence We Would Miss If We Do Not Use Grey Literature? 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1145/3475716.3475777
Final Thoughts
If you're interested in exploring human aspects of software work, from empathy to inclusion, communication to stress, the DEV community is an excellent place to start. It’s full of rich, first-person narratives that reflect the lived realities of developers worldwide.
🔍 Whether you're an SE researcher or a curious practitioner, DEV offers insights that go far beyond code!
🙏 Thank you, DEV community! I'd like to acknowledge the generosity of developers who openly share their experiences, reflections, and challenges here on DEV. To everyone who writes, reads, comments, and supports this community: thank you for contributing to knowledge exchange and inspiring meaningful, human-centered research in software engineering.
Finally, if you'd like to know more, check out the published studies or reach out. I’m happy to share experiences and support others on this journey!