Tool DemonstrationsFSE 2026

Call for Tool Demonstrations

The FSE 2026 Tool Demonstrations Track welcomes researchers and practitioners to showcase new research tools that address the latest advances, experiences, and challenges in software engineering. We encourage demonstrations of innovative tools, showcasing both early implementations of novel software engineering concepts and mature prototypes.

Whereas a regular research paper points out the scientific contribution of a new software engineering approach, a tool demonstration paper provides the opportunity to show how a scientific contribution has been transferred into a working tool. Authors of regular research papers are thus encouraged to submit an accompanying demonstration paper, provided the tool itself was not already a main contribution of the research paper. Demonstration papers should present new content, such as details on a tool implementation, that has not been previously published as a main contribution in any venue, including other tracks of the same conference. If applicable, authors should clearly describe any differences with their previous publications in their submission.

Submission Guidelines

At the time of submission, all papers must conform to the FSE 2026 Format and Submission Guidelines, and must not exceed four pages for all text, figures, and tables. An additional one page can be used for references. Submitted papers must be written in English. They must be unpublished and not considered for publication elsewhere.

If you have any questions about the suitability of a paper, please contact the co-chairs.

A submitted paper should describe the tool and the intent and relevance of the tool for researchers and practitioners. The authors are requested to include:

• A walkthrough of the actual demonstration of the tool provided as an appendix to the paper (this appendix will not be included in the page count and will not be published).
• A link to a screencast or some other accompanying multimedia presentation of the tool demonstration.
• Information on the tool’s availability, maturity, and user base, as well as a link to a website for the materials (if one exists) and any source code (if open source).
• All accepted tool demonstration papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library.

The FSE Tool Demonstrations Track will employ a single-blind review process: authors’ identities should be visible to reviewers to facilitate sharing of tools and accompanying material.

The official publication date (when proceedings become available in the ACM Digital Library) may be up to two weeks before the first day of FSE 2026. Please note that this date is relevant for any related patent filings.

Please carefully read the complete list of FSE Submission Policies and Policies for Accepted Contributions. Papers must be submitted electronically as PDF files through the conference submission site at https://fse2026-demo.hotcrp.com

Tool Availability

To promote replicability and to disseminate the advances achieved with the tools, we strongly encourage authors to make their tools publicly available, ideally under an open-source license. If this is not possible, the submission must clearly explain why.

Authors are also encouraged to distribute their tool demonstration in a form that can be easily used and archived, such as a virtual machine image and a software container (e.g., Docker).

Screencast

To increase the visibility of the presented tools, we require all authors to produce a screencast showcasing their tool in action. For accepted papers, the accompanying screencasts will be linked from the demonstration track website. The authors have to submit a link to the screencast together with their papers.

Review and Evaluation Criteria

Each submission will be reviewed by members of the program committee.

The main evaluation criteria include the relevance and quality of the proposed tool demonstration in terms of technical soundness, originality, relevance for the FSE audience, presentation quality, and usability.

Presentation and Publication

Accepted tool demonstrations will be allocated four pages (plus one additional page for references) in the main conference proceedings.

At least one author of each accepted paper must register and present the paper at FSE 2026 for the paper to be published in the proceedings. One-day registrations do NOT satisfy the registration requirement.

Demonstrators will be invited to give a formal presentation that will be scheduled as part of the conference program.

Important Dates

All dates are 23:59:59 AoE (UTC-12h).

• Submission deadline: Jan 22, 2026
• Notification to authors: March 17, 2026
• Camera-ready deadline: April 2, 2026
• Conference: July 5 - 9, 2026