diff --git a/cpp/ql/src/Architecture/General Class-Level Information/InheritanceDepthDistribution.qhelp b/cpp/ql/src/Architecture/General Class-Level Information/InheritanceDepthDistribution.qhelp
index ce1fad2322c..84c7c6ba350 100644
--- a/cpp/ql/src/Architecture/General Class-Level Information/InheritanceDepthDistribution.qhelp	
+++ b/cpp/ql/src/Architecture/General Class-Level Information/InheritanceDepthDistribution.qhelp	
@@ -19,20 +19,16 @@ may not be exploiting object-orientation to the full.</p>
 
 <references>
 <li>
-Shyam R. Chidamber and Chris F. Kemerer.
-<a href="http://www.pitt.edu/~ckemerer/CK%20research%20papers/MetricForOOD_ChidamberKemerer94.pdf">A Metrics Suite for Object Oriented Design
-</a>.
+Shyam R. Chidamber and Chris F. Kemerer,
+<i><a href="http://www.pitt.edu/~ckemerer/CK%20research%20papers/MetricForOOD_ChidamberKemerer94.pdf">A Metrics Suite for Object Oriented Design
+</a></i>.
 IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
 20(6), pages 476-493, June 1994.</li>
 
 <li>
-<a href="http://www.dmst.aueb.gr/dds/index.en.html">Diomides D. Spinnelis</a>.
-<a href="http://www.spinellis.gr/codequality/">Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective</a>.
-Addison-Wesley 2007.</li>
-
-<li>
-<a href="http://www.dmst.aueb.gr/dds/index.en.html">Diomides D. Spinnelis</a>.
-<a href="http://www.spinellis.gr/sw/ckjm/">ckjm - Chidamber and Kemerer Java Metrics</a>.
-(implementation of CK metrics), 2006.</li>
+Lutz Prechelt, Barbara Unger, Michael Philippsen, and Walter Tich, <i><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.159.2229&rep=rep1&type=pdf">A Controlled Experiment on Inheritance Depth as a Cost Factor for Code Maintenance
+</a></i>.
+Journal of Systems and Software, 65 (2):115-126, 2003.
+</li>
 </references>
 </qhelp>
diff --git a/cpp/ql/src/Metrics/Namespaces/HighDistanceFromMainLineNamespaces.qhelp b/cpp/ql/src/Metrics/Namespaces/HighDistanceFromMainLineNamespaces.qhelp
index ad02846ce4f..5eb43361ebc 100644
--- a/cpp/ql/src/Metrics/Namespaces/HighDistanceFromMainLineNamespaces.qhelp
+++ b/cpp/ql/src/Metrics/Namespaces/HighDistanceFromMainLineNamespaces.qhelp
@@ -5,9 +5,17 @@
 
 
 <overview>
-<p>This query finds namespaces that do not have a good balance between abstractness and stability.</p>
+<p>This query finds namespaces that do not have a good balance between abstractness and stability where:</p>
+<ul>
+<li> 
+Abstractness measures the proportion of abstract types in a namespace relative to the total number of types in that namespace.
+</li>
+<li>
+Instability measures the level of expectation that changes to other namespaces will affect this namespace.
+</li>
+</ul>
 
-<p>This metric tries to capture the trade-off between abstractness
+<p>The metric tries to capture the trade-off between abstractness
       and instability. For an ideal balance, the sum of
       abstractness and instability should be one. That is, a package is
       completely abstract and stable (abstractness=1 and instability=0)