Accepted Papers

Call for Submission and Participation

The Doctoral Symposium primarily welcomes any Ph.D. student who has already settled on a dissertation topic in the Requirements Engineering area. We call for submission and participation from students typically in the first half of their research toward their Ph.D. dissertation.

Goal for Submission and Participation

The forum aims to offer participants personalized, helpful feedback on their current research while encouraging the exploration of new ideas.

Additionally, the event provides an opportunity for student participants to connect with experienced researchers and professionals in the field as well as with fellow students from around the world. This interaction allows for sharing knowledge and insights, as well as developing lasting professional connections with the entire community.

Submission and Participation Requirements

Each student’s Doctoral Symposium submission comprises two essential components:

• A letter of recommendation from the student’s dissertation advisor should be sent directly to the Doctoral Symposium Chairs via email (Prof. Daniel Amyot: damyot@uottawa.ca and Prof. Martin Glinz: glinz@ifi.uzh.ch). This letter must provide an assessment of the current state of the student’s research and an anticipated date for dissertation completion.

• A concise paper detailing the student’s dissertation research. This paper must be solely authored by the student; supervisors are not allowed as co-authors.

The maximum paper length is 4 pages (with an additional page permitted for references only) and must address the following aspects, though not necessarily in this order:

1. The research problem to be resolved, its significance, and the justification that prior research has not yet resolved the issue.
2. The research goal or hypothesis.
3. A discussion of relevant related work and motivation for the work.
4. The anticipated contributions of the research.
5. The proposed method to achieve the research goal or test the hypothesis.
6. A summary of the results obtained thus far.
7. A timeline planned (or followed)

For early-stage Ph.D. submissions, the paper should be limited to two pages (with an additional page allowed for references only) and must include all items from (1) to (5) listed above, excluding items (6) and (7).

Papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format via the RE’25 EasyChair system following the formatting instructions described here: Select the Doctoral Symposium Track for submission.

Students accepted to the Doctoral Symposium must register at regular student rates and attend the Doctoral Symposium in person. Students are expected to attend the Doctoral Symposium for the whole day.

Evaluation Criteria

The submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The quality and potential of the research and its relevance to Requirements Engineering,
• The quality of the Doctoral Symposium paper, and
• The stage of the research and its suitability for the Doctoral Symposium.

The Doctoral Symposium papers of the selected participants will be published in the conference proceedings.

The format of your paper must strictly adhere to the IEEEtran Proceedings Format. LaTeX users: please use the LaTeX class file IEEEtran v1.8 and the following configuration (without option ‘compsoc’ or ‘compsocconf’): \documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}

Word users: please use this Word template. See the official IEEE Templates page for more information.

Please make sure that your submission:

• does not exceed the respective page limit specified in the track call
• is in PDF format,
• is in letter page size,
• does not have page numbers,
• has all fonts embedded in the PDF file,
• uses only scalable font types (like Type 1, TrueType) — bit-mapped font types (like Type 3) are not acceptable,
• has all figures embedded in vector graphics (if not possible, use a high-resolution bitmap format of at least 300 dpi; do not use JPG, but a lossless format like PNG or GIF),
• has all text in figures and tables large enough and readable when printed,
• has a caption for every figure or table,
• has the title and all headings properly capitalized
• has no orphans and widows (cf. Section Help), and
• does not use footnote references in the abstract.

Keynote Speakers

Irit Hadar

Director, Center for Cyber, Law and Policy, University of Haifa

PhD Vibe Check: Strategies for Resilience, Success, and Impact

Abstract: The doctoral journey is often perceived as a solitary, uphill battle. It is a unique expedition, filled with intellectual discovery, but also, quite naturally, its share of demanding moments and unexpected turns. This talk is designed as an interactive, guiding conversation to help you cultivate the mindset and strategies needed to not just navigate, but truly thrive throughout your PhD. We will discuss how to effectively organize your research, manage the inevitable expectations and frustrations that arise, and foster productive, supportive relationships with your advisors and peers. We will also discuss the art of crafting compelling dissertations and impactful presentations, ensuring your scholarly contributions resonate widely. My aim is to equip you with the tools to build lasting resilience and academic success throughout and beyond your PhD journey.

Bio: Irit Hadar is the Director of the Center for Cyber Law and Policy at the University of Haifa. Prior to this role she served as the Chair of the Department of Information Systems. Her main research area is cognitive aspects of software engineering, with emphasis on requirements engineering, cybersecurity & privacy, and responsible AI. Hadar serves as an editorial board member of the journals Empirical Software Engineering and Requirements Engineering, has been serving as an organizer and PC member in various conferences, including program co-chair of the IEEE Int. RE Conf. in 2024, and as a member of the conference Steering Committee. She has won research grants from national and international foundations, governmental and tech organizations, and published papers in leading journals and conferences of software engineering and information systems (e.g., IEEE TSE, EMSE, IST, JSS, REJ, BISE). For more information, visit [Irit Hadar webpage](https://sites.google.com/hevra.haifa.ac.il/dr-irit-hadar/home).