What Do Programmers Ask About DSpace?

An Analysis of Technical Questions Using Machine Learning

Abstract

The growing use of digital repositories has increased the importance of understanding technical challenges associated with repository platforms. This study examines user-generated questions (2010-2025) related to DSpace collected from Stack Overflow. A total of 512 questions were analysed using K-means clustering, a machine learning algorithm for identifying themes or topics. The results reveal that developers mostly asked questions about “indexing configuration,” “API usage,” and “interface customisation.” Additionally, a co-occurrence network map of question tags explored relationships among technologies such as Java, XMLUI, and Solr. The study presents statistics on question scores, answer counts, and comment counts, which reveal patterns in community responses. The findings of the study have practical implications for developers, DSpace users, Library and Information Science professionals, and repository managers in improving documentation and user support to address issues encountered while using DSpace.