  The relevance of Requirements Engineering (RE) research to practitioners is
vital for a long-term dissemination of research results to everyday practice.
Some authors have speculated about a mismatch between research and practice in
the RE discipline. However, there is not much evidence to support or refute
this perception. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at gathering
evidence from practitioners about their perception of the relevance of RE
research and at understanding the factors that influence that perception. We
conducted a questionnaire-based survey of industry practitioners with expertise
in RE. The participants rated the perceived relevance of 435 scientific papers
presented at five top RE-related conferences. The 153 participants provided a
total of 2,164 ratings. The practitioners rated RE research as essential or
worthwhile in a majority of cases. However, the percentage of non-positive
ratings is still higher than we would like. Among the factors that affect the
perception of relevance are the research's links to industry, the research
method used, and respondents' roles. The reasons for positive perceptions were
primarily related to the relevance of the problem and the soundness of the
solution, while the causes for negative perceptions were more varied. The
respondents also provided suggestions for future research, including topics
researchers have studied for decades, like elicitation or requirement quality
criteria.
