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To predict files with defects, a suitable prediction model must be built for a software project from either itself (within-project) or other projects (cross-project). A universal defect prediction model that is built from the entire set of diverse projects would relieve the need for building models for an individual project. A universal model could also be interpreted as a basic relationship between software metrics and defects. However, the variations in the distribution of predictors pose a formidable obstacle to build a universal model. Such variations exist among projects with different context factors (e.g., size and programming language). To overcome this challenge, we propose context-aware rank transformations for predictors. We cluster projects based on the similarity of the distribution of 26 predictors, and derive the rank transformations using quantiles of predictors for a cluster. We then fit the universal model on the …