Reusability ranking of software components by coupling measure

This paper provides an account of new measures of coupling developed to assess the reusability of Java components retrieved from the internet by a search engine. These measures differ from the majority of established metrics in two respects: they reflect the degree to which entities are coupled or resemble each other, and they take account of indirect couplings or similarities. An empirical comparison of the new measures with eight established metrics is described. The new measure is shown to be consistently superior at ranking components according to their reusability.