[nelsonic]

Read the article. The methodology is flawed. It should say most copy-pasted Java function on GitHub.

[eviks]

it does say that: "We present results of a large-scale empiricalstudy analyzing the usage and attribution of non-trivial Java"

[robertlagrant]

You asked:

> How does the author determine this is the "most copied snippet" on SO?

People answered. Should they not have?

[nelsonic]

Robert, indeed I’m grateful for the answers people have given. Perhaps I asked the wrong question to begin with. I know better for next time to be more specific. Thanks.