Tools and DatasetsASE 2026

Call for Papers

The ASE 2026 Tools and Datasets Track invites researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent advances, experiences, and challenges in the field of software engineering supported by live presentations of new research tools, datasets, and other artefacts. We encourage innovative research demonstrations, which show early implementations of novel software engineering concepts, as well as mature prototypes. The research demonstrations are intended to highlight underlying scientific contributions.

Whereas a regular research paper points out the scientific contribution of a new software engineering approach, a demonstration paper provides the opportunity to show how a scientific contribution has been transferred into a working tool or data set. Authors of regular research papers are thus encouraged to submit an accompanying demonstration paper. Submissions of independent tools that are not associated with any research papers are welcome.

Papers submitted to the tools and datasets track should describe:

a) novel early prototypes (tools or data resources), or b) novel capabilities, extensions, or insights enabled by mature tools or datasets.

The submissions must clearly communicate the following information to the audience:

• intended users and usage context (e.g., researchers, practitioners, educators; target workflow and integration points);
• the software engineering problem addressed and why existing tools/data are insufficient;
• the artefact(s) provided (tool, dataset, benchmark, repository, package, etc.), including key functionalities or contents;
• how the artefact is used, including the methodology/workflow it supports and any requirements (inputs/outputs, setup, dependencies);
• the evidence of utility and quality: results of validation studies or empirical evaluations (for mature artefacts) or the design of planned studies and expected evaluation criteria (for early prototypes);
• availability and reusability information, such as access links, licensing (as applicable), documentation, and any notes on reproducibility (e.g., scripts, containers, data statements).

Submission

Papers must be submitted electronically through the HotCRP submission site https://ase26-tools-datasets.hotcrp.com by May 11th 2026, and must:

• All submissions must be in PDF format and conform, at time of submission, to the ACM Proceedings Template: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. LaTeX users must use the \documentclass[sigconf,review]{acmart} option;
• All submissions must be in English;
• A demonstration submission must not exceed four pages (including all text, references, and figures);
• Authors are required to submit a screencast of the tool or dataset, with the video link attached to the end of the abstract;
• Authors are encouraged to make their code and datasets open source, with the link for the code and datasets attached to the end of the abstract;
• A submission must not have been previously published in a demonstration form and must not simultaneously be submitted to another symposium other than ASE;
• Submissions for the tool track DO NOT follow a double-blind review process. If a tool track submission accompanies a submission to the research track (which is double-blind), please make sure to click “Yes” in the “Connection with research track” section on HotCRP during submission.

Tools and Datasets Availability

To promote replicability and to disseminate the advances achieved with the research tools and datasets, we require that datasets are publicly available in a long-term archive (such as Zenodo) for download and use, ideally through their distribution with an open-source software license. Whenever the tool or dataset is not made publicly available, the paper must include a clear explanation for why this was not possible. Authors are also encouraged to distribute their demonstration in a form that can be easily used, such as a virtual machine image, a software container (e.g., Docker), or a system configuration (e.g., Puppet, Ansible, Salt, CFEngine).

Screencast

Authors are required to prepare an up to 5 minutes video demonstrating the tool or the dataset. For consistency, we require ALL videos to be uploaded to YouTube and made available by the time of submission. The URL of the YouTube video should be added at the end of the abstract. The video should:

• provide an overview of the tool’s capabilities and show the major tool features in detail;
• provide clarifying voice-over and/or annotation highlights;
• be engaging and exciting for the audience!

Please note that authors of successful submissions will have the opportunity to revise the paper, the video (and its hosting location), the code, and the datasets by the camera-ready deadline. Submissions that do not comply with the instructions will be rejected without review.

Evaluation

Each submission will be reviewed by at least three members of the tool demonstrations program committee. The evaluation criteria include:

• Presentation, i.e., the extent to which the presentation meets the high standards of ASE.
• Relevance, i.e., the pertinence of the proposed tool/dataset for the ASE audience;
• Positioning, i.e., the degree to which the submission considers differences to related tools/datasets (pros and cons);
• Demo quality, i.e., the quality and usefulness of the accompanied artifacts: video, tool, code, and evaluation datasets. For further information, please feel free to contact the track chairs.

Accepted Papers

After acceptance, the list of paper authors cannot be changed under any circumstances; the list of authors on camera-ready papers must be identical to those on submitted papers. Paper titles cannot be changed except by permission of the Track Chairs and only when referees recommend a change for clarity or accuracy with respect to the paper content.

Publication Date

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

Questions and Comments

If you have any further questions, please contact the PC chairs at jie.zhang@kcl.ac.uk and aldeida.aleti@monash.edu.