SERS 2027

Software enables critical research in a variety of academic disciplines. Yet those who write this “research software” are often disconnected from the software engineering research (SER) community, whose research does not focus on the unique challenges of research software.

Following the successful first edition of the Software Engineering and Research Software (SERS) workshop at ICSE 2026, this workshop continues to bring the particular needs of research software engineering and those who develop research software into the ICSE community, and aims to promote the subject of research software among software engineering researchers.

It also builds on Dagstuhl Seminar 24161, “Research Software Engineering: Bridging Knowledge Gaps,” held in April 2024, which brought together software engineering researchers and research software engineers to facilitate better understanding and initiate collaborations. By extending the focus of the seminar, the workshop aims to further develop the community of collaborating software engineering researchers and research software engineers, while identifying new research challenges, opportunities for collaboration, and applications of software engineering practices in research software contexts.

Call for Papers

Software enables critical research in a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines, medicine, social sciences, and the humanities. Such “research software” has existed since the development of the first computer programs. Yet those who create and maintain research software are often disconnected from the software engineering research community, whose research does not focus on the unique challenges of research software.

The second iteration of the Software Engineering and Research Software (SERS) workshop aims to bring the particular needs of research software engineering and those who develop research software into the ICSE community. It aims to help software engineering researchers gain knowledge about research software, its developers and maintainers, and the processes they use, by providing examples of successful projects involving both software engineering research and research software, and highlighting unique challenges faced in research software engineering.

Thus, the objectives of the workshop are (i) to expose software engineering researchers to research software, highlighting new areas of research, collaboration, and application; (ii) to foster collaboration between software engineering researchers and research software engineers to drive innovation and improve research and research software.

Submissions

We invite software engineers, software engineering researchers, and research software engineers to submit extended abstracts (max. length: 4 pages, including references). We welcome submissions to the workshop that present relevant software engineering research on research software or research software engineering, in particular, but not limited to:

1. reports of successful projects involving both software engineering research and research software, highlighting areas where software engineering research yielded solutions to domain problems in research, or problems specific to research software engineering, or
2. reports of research software engineering challenges, highlighting both how the challenge is specific to research software or the research software engineering context, and how software engineering research can contribute to overcoming the challenge, including through innovative methods, processes, and tools.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions are reviewed on the basis of relevance, technical quality, significance, and clarity by at least two members of the program committee, using a single-blind process (i.e., the submission has to include author names and affiliations). All submissions must be in English, in PDF format, and must conform to the IEEE Conference Proceedings formatting guidelines (10 pt, IEEEtran). Submissions must be submitted via the HotCRP online submission system and must not exceed 4 pages including references.

Our guidelines are based on the submission guidelines of the ICSE Research track, with a reduced page limit and the requirement that author information should be included in papers. Submissions with confirmed hallucinated or fabricated references will be desk-rejected without review.

Accepted extended abstracts will be published by IEEE in the ICSE 2027 Companion Proceedings. The official publication date of the workshop proceedings is the date the proceedings are made available by IEEE. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of ICSE 2027. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

Workshop Format

At least one author of each accepted submission must register for the workshop and present the work in person. All accepted papers will be given a presentation slot on the workshop day. Authors will also have the opportunity to present a poster on the workshop day, during a dedicated poster session. Authors can indicate their preference upon submission.