Shadow Research Track Program CommitteeICSE 2027

Call for ICSE 2027 Shadow PC Participation

Mission Statement

The goal of the Shadow PC is to train the next generation of reviewers through deliberate practice with specific guidance and feedback. The Shadow PC is a professional development program to serve the entire software engineering research community.

Program Description

The Shadow PC is a professional development program for early-career researchers to learn about the academic peer review process as a reviewer, with a focus on critically evaluating papers and writing good reviews. It provides an opportunity for early-career researchers who are interested in being embedded in the community. For mid-career researchers, the Shadow PC also provides an opportunity to practice the role of an Area Chair: overseeing a batch papers, facilitating reviewer discussions, driving consensus, and maintaining consistency and calibration across submissions. The Shadow PC will provide reviews on a subset of submissions to the research track of the conference (from authors who opt-in for their paper to be reviewed by the Shadow PC).

The Shadow PC will mirror several features of the regular PC of the research track, including evaluating ICSE submissions, bidding, discussions, and the technology platform used. However, it will deviate in part from ICSE’s review process to focus on deliberate practice, constructive feedback, and calibration - in a multi-step process with many intermediate deadlines and a smaller review load. Shadow reviews for papers that are reviewed by the Shadow PC will be sent out to authors after the end of the actual review process, but shadow reviews will not affect the official decision made by the regular PC.

Participants will have to abide by the same rules and restrictions applicable to regular PC members. This includes, but is not limited to, conflicts of interest, double-blind reviews, and rules against discussing the papers outside of the PC context, restrictions on the use of AI, and using in any way results from reviewed papers before such papers have been published. Delegated reviews (i.e., external reviews) are not allowed for the Shadow PC.

Who can participate in the Shadow PC?

Shadow PC is open to PhD students, post-docs, new faculty members and industry practitioners working in software engineering research who (a) previously have received reviews for a paper submission in the technical research track (or the main track) of the premier SE conferences (e.g., ICSE, FSE, ASE), and (b) have not previously served as a program committee member of the technical research track of these conferences.

Shadow Area Chair positions are open to researchers who have served as a PC member of the technical research track of ICSE, FSE, or ASE at least two times (three or more preferred), and who have not previously served as an Area Chair for any of these conferences. Shadow Area Chairs are expected to oversee 20-30 papers: coordinating reviewer discussions, ensuring consistency and calibration across submissions within their area, and synchronizing with the other Shadow Area Chairs and Shadow PC Chairs throughout the process.

Authors of ICSE 2027 submissions are welcome to join the Shadow PC. We will try to provide opportunities for many participants, but if we receive too many applications, we may select the Shadow PC members based on motivation and research experience. We particularly value participation from community members who may not have a strong local support network or institutional support for professional development (particularly review training) and are hence often overlooked in PC member selections.

Why join a Shadow PC?

Serving on a Shadow PC is an excellent opportunity for early-career researchers to learn about how to evaluate papers and write strong, constructive reviews that benefit the entire software engineering research community. For mid-career researchers, serving as a Shadow PC Area Chair provides excellent practice in discussion facilitation and consensus building. It is also worthwhile for a number of reasons, including:

• Getting to know how a review process operates;
• Receiving feedback on reviews by experienced community members, and practicing providing constructive feedback to other reviewers
• For Shadow Area Chairs: practicing the facilitation and consensus-building skills needed to run discussions, calibrate across reviewers, and write meta-reviews, with mentorship from experienced ICSE Area Chairs
• Gaining experience reviewing papers and understanding the challenges faced by reviewers reading multiple papers, which may not always be in their area of expertise
• Observing the contrast between strong and weak papers at the submission stage, rather than just seeing published work
• Discovering what it takes to publish a paper at a top-tier conference
• Networking with other early-career researchers who are also serving on the Shadow PC and senior researchers
• Receiving recognition in the form of a certificate for completion, and a possible recommendation to the PC chairs of future ICSE/FSE/ASE conferences.

(see also Varghese, Delvin, Hafeni Mthoko, Jessica Watterson, Pranav Kulkarni, Dan Richardson, Shaimaa Lazem, and Patrick Olivier. “Shadow Program Committee: Designing for Diversity and Equity within Academic Communities.” ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies 2, no. 1 (2024): 1-24.)

What to expect and timeline

The Shadow PC starts one week after the ICSE submission deadline (July 7) and ends about one week after the ICSE notifications (Oct 27). Expect about 20 to 40 hours of work over this 3-month period, structured in multiple phases. We plan to have a synchronous Zoom meeting on August 4 to discuss some reviews (several times will be offered for different time zones). Participation in each phase and in the synchronous meeting is required. Participants who do not complete a phase will be excluded from subsequent phases of the Shadow PC.

In this 3-month period, you will set up a reviewer profile in HotCRP, bid for papers, review 5 to 6 papers in three separate batches, receive feedback on those reviews, and learn about the outcome of the discussion for those papers in the main ICSE PC from ICSE PC members.

Shadow Area Chairs follow the same timeline with a different workload distribution: lighter check-ins during each review phase to monitor review quality and calibration across their batch of 15-25 papers, with most of the work concentrated in the discussion phase (Oct 9-16). Tasks during the discussion phase include leading reviewer discussions, driving consensus, and coordinating with the other chairs. Expect a similar overall time commitment (20-40 hours).

Overall, we focus on deliberate practice, where we ask participants to incrementally draft and revise reviews with concrete guidelines and feedback, encouraging reflection on good review practices and learnings, even if this sometimes may slightly undermine the realism of the experience.

Here is a preliminary list of phases and corresponding deadlines:

Jul 7 Shadow PC applications due

Jul 14 HotCRP account setup and ethics training due

Jul 14 to Aug 4 Write and revise 2 reviews

Aug 18 Synchronous Zoom meetings to discuss initial reviews

Aug 19 to Aug 25: Paper bidding

Aug 30 to Sep 15: Review 3 more papers

Sep 17 to Sep 29: Peer review for other reviews on the same paper due

Sep 30 to Oct 6: Review 1 more paper

Oct 6 Synchronous Zoom meetings to prepare for discussions

Oct 7 to Oct 20: Discussions

Oct 27: Release of Shadow PC reviews to the authors

During ICSE (optional): Informal Shadow PC lunch for networking and discussions

Area chairs will check reviews in the corresponding phases and have their main responsibilities during the discussion phase.

We will provide certificates for completed participation in all phases of the Shadow PC and will suggest stellar Shadow PC reviewers to the PC chairs of ICSE, FSE, and ASE 2027.

What is required of Shadow PC members?

Shadow PC members must commit themselves to participating in the review process and in all its phases across a 3-month period, writing reviews for 6 papers total and participating in discussions (approximately 20 to 40 hours of work). Timely reviewing and participation in discussions is essential to the good functioning of any PC. Candidates who might be unable to fulfil their reviewing duties should refrain from applying. Shadow PC members must follow the ethical standards of peer review (which we will explain), respect the anonymity of the review process, and not share which papers they have reviewed. Shadow PC members who do not adhere to the ethical standards of peer review will be excluded from the process and will be reported to the ACM for misconduct.

How to apply?

The application process for Shadow PC members is not competitive - we try to include everybody who meets the participation criteria. However, participating requires substantial commitment. Last year, only about 60% of participants who started the Shadow PC program finished it.

For Shadow Area Chairs we may need to be more selective if there is more interest than capacity.

If you are interested in participating as Shadow PC Member or Shadow Area Chair, please complete the online application form (https://forms.gle/vVdP5tn6AwLCaccy5) by July 7, 2026, AoE. In case you have difficulty accessing the form, email the Shadow PC Co-Chair Christian Kaestner (kaestner@cs.cmu.edu).