Short Papers, Vision and Emerging ResultsEASE 2024

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

The Short Papers, Vision, and Emerging Results Track is dedicated to presenting forward-looking perspectives and pioneering concepts that transcend traditional boundaries. We encourage submissions that aim to accelerate the empirical software engineering community’s exposure to novel research results, innovative methodologies, and thought-provoking reflections. In this track, we seek papers that challenge the status quo, push the boundaries of current practices, and explore uncharted territories in software engineering

There are two types of paper submissions in this track:

1. Vision and Emerging Results Papers should present long-term challenges and opportunities rather than incremental improvements or evaluations of current solutions or practices. Our aim is to accelerate the exposure of the empirical software engineering community to early yet potentially ground-breaking research results on evidence-based software engineering, and to techniques and perspectives that challenge the status quo in the discipline. To broadly capture this goal, this track will publish the following types of papers.

   • Forward-looking ideas: exciting new directions or techniques that may have yet to be supported by solid experimental results but are nonetheless supported by strong and well-argued scientific intuitions as well as concrete plans going forward.

   • Thought-provoking reflections: bold and unexpected results and reflections that can help us look at current research directions under a new light, calling for new directions for future research.

   Typically, these papers include creative ways to extend the applicability of techniques in empirical software engineering and/or challenge the existing explicit or implicit assumptions or paradigms in the field. Bold calls to action for potential novel directions supported by a well-motivated scientific intuition or argument, as well as well-grounded well grounded predictions of how empirical software engineering research and practice will look in the far future are welcome. Potential areas may include (but not limited to):

   • Emerging ideas for software engineering infrastructures (Cloud Computing, DevOps, Healthcare, Smart Cities, Digital Twins, Quantum Computing and IoT)

   • Cross- and multi-disciplinary methods and studies

   • New applications and advances in design science, case studies, action-research, and field studies, including multilevel and/or mixed methods research designs

   • Simulation-based studies in software engineering as an empirical method

   • New models of technology transfer to the industry

   • Using AI as a research method in software engineering

   • Cohort studies for large-scale research initiatives

   • Software engineering for data science advances

   • Incorporating virtual and augmented reality into software engineering research

   • Empirical assessments of sustainability in software engineering

2. Short Paper regard the submission of insightful research that can often go unrecognised under the standard review process. This includes, but is not limited to, for instance:

   • Critique of established methodology and/or practice.

   • Research on controversial topics.

   • “Folklore confirmations”: when a sound researcher finds “what everyone knows already”. We will consider “common sense” findings that may not have been scientifically proven, but might be considered “not new enough” under traditional peer review.

   • Unexpected results: when an empirical evaluation results diverge dramatically from the expectations, and the researchers do not find what they were looking for.

   • Confirmation studies, when a new study confirms previously well-known results.

   • Methodological failure reports, where poor design invalidates otherwise interesting findings (both the findings and study design flaws need to be discussed).

   • Preliminary results: the early results of an on-going research.

How to Submit

All papers must be submitted in PDF format through the web-based submission system https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ease2024.

Submissions must not exceed 6 pages, including all figures, tables, references, and appendices.

All submissions should use the official ACM Primary Article Template (https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template). Deviating from the ACM formatting instructions may lead to a desk rejection. LaTeX users should use the following options:

\documentclass[sigconf,review,anonymous]{acmart}
\acmConference[EASE 2024]{The 28th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering}{18–21 June, 2024}{Salerno, Italy}

Authors must comply with the SIGSOFT Open Science Policy https://github.com/acmsigsoft/open-science-policies/blob/master/sigsoft-open-science-policies.md (i.e., to archive data and artifacts in a permanent repository—e.g., Zenodo, not GitHub—to the extent ethically and practically possible, and include links in a Data Availability section in their manuscripts).

EASE 2024 will employ a double-anonymous review process. Do not include author names or affiliations in submissions. All references to the author’s prior work should be in the third person. Any online supplements, replication packages, etc., referred to in the work should also be anonymized. Advice for sharing supplements anonymously can be found here https://ineed.coffee/post/how-to-disclose-data-for-double-blind-review-and-make-it-archived-open-data-upon-acceptance

By submitting to EASE, authors agree to the ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism, Misrepresentation, and Falsification https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism-overview. Papers submitted to EASE must not be published or under review elsewhere. The Program Chairs may use plagiarism detection software under contract to the ACM. If the research involves human participants/subjects, the authors must adhere to the ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/research-involving-human-participants-and-subjects.

Review Criteria

Papers selected for the field experiment will receive two standards-based reviews. To see the criteria for standards-based reviews will use this tool. https://www2.sigsoft.org/EmpiricalStandards/form_generator/Checklist.html?role=author . Read the introductory paragraph carefully. Select the method(s) used in your submission. Click “submit.” Going through this checklist is a great way to optimize your paper for EASE.

All papers will receive free-text reviews like in previous years. These reviews will evaluate submissions against the following criteria:

• Soundness: The extent to which the paper’s contributions and/or innovations address its research questions and are supported by rigorous application of appropriate research methods

• Significance: The extent to which the paper’s contributions can impact the field of software engineering and under which assumptions (if any)

• Novelty: The extent to which the contributions are sufficiently original with respect to the state-of-the-art

• Verifiability and Transparency: The extent to which the paper includes sufficient information to understand how an innovation works; how data was obtained, analyzed, and interpreted; and how the paper supports independent verification or replication of the paper’s claimed contributions.

• Presentation: The extent to which the paper’s quality of writing meets the high standards of EASE, including clear descriptions, as well as adequate use of the English language, absence of major ambiguity, clearly readable figures and tables, and adherence to the formatting instructions provided above.

Important Dates

Abstract Submission deadline: 8 March 2024, AoE
Submission deadline: 10 March 2024, AoE
Notification: 19 April 2024, AoE
Camera-ready: 26 April 2024, AoE
Early registration deadline: 5 May 2024, AoE

Conference Attendance Expectation

If a submission is accepted, at least one author of the paper is required to register for the conference and present the paper.