Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)ECSA 2021

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

It has been widely demonstrated that diversity in gender, culture, religion, country, etc. is a key factor to have success and be competitive and innovative in software development. However, setting up diverse teams in ICT companies and in STEM universities and research centers is still hard to realize in practice, even if all recognize the importance of promoting equal opportunities and inclusion for the success of projects. This challenge is particularly important in the context of software architecture, which requires intensive interactions among software teams, discussion about design ideas, and communication with other stakeholders.

In this scenario, following the success of the past editions, the 6th special track on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)” (previously Gender Diversity in Software Architecture & Software Engineering) is part of the 15th premier European Conference on Software Architecture (ECSA 2021). DE&I will provide a forum for discussions about how to achieve more diversity and promote equity and inclusion in software architecture research and practice. Any person regardless of their gender, culture, etc., are invited to collaborate and attend to this track. Students, industry professionals, academics, and other people with an interest in software architecture are welcome to promote networking and technical discussion to motivate the participation and visibility of every individual, regardless of their background.

Topics of interest are listed as follows but not limited to:

• Diversity, equity and inclusion in activities related to software architecture
• Diversity, equity and inclusion in the software architecture research community
• Diversity, equity and inclusion in global software architecture teams working in academia or industry
• Empirical studies (experiments, surveys, mining software repositories, etc.) to understand how individuals perceive diversity, equity, and inclusion in activities related to software architecture
• Empirical studies to understand the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion in activities related to software architecture
• Experience reports of initiatives to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in activities related to software architecture

There will be a mix of presentations and a panel to discuss current and future issues in the field by leading experts from industry and academia. As ECSA’21 will be a virtual event, the track will be organized online.

Submissions

Paper submissions must be made electronically via the online EasyChair submission site for the ECSA 2021 conference https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecsa2021 selecting DE&I track.

We seek contributions as summaries, preliminary results from work-in-progress, discussion of challenges, position papers, experience reports, or studies; all regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in Software Architecture and Software Engineering, and more generally in STEM, both in industry and academia. Papers must be 5 to maximum 10 pages, CEUR-ART style (available at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-XXX/CEURART.zip), single-column option. All contributions will undergo a peer-review process, being reviewed by at least three reviewers. The evaluation criteria for submissions will be whether they contribute ideas or results to the challenge of achieving more diversity in the field of software architecture and whether the argumentation and/or study are sound.

Proceedings

The accepted papers will be included in the ECSA 2021 companion volume to be published at CEUR (http://ceur-ws.org). This is an online proceedings that will be available before the start of the conference. Paper registration is required, allowing the inclusion of the paper in the proceedings. At least one author needs to register and must present the paper. In addition, there will be post-proceedings of selected and extended papers that will be published in a LNCS volume (together with other tracks and ECSA 2021 workshops). Papers submitted for the post-proceedings will undergo an additional review cycle.

Important Dates

• Paper submission: July 2nd, 2021
• Author notification: July 22nd, 2021
• Camera-ready version: July 29th, 2021

Note: All deadlines are 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)

Organizers

• Ingrid Nunes, UFRGS, Brasil
• Thomas Vogel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany