Doctoral SymposiumICSME 2026

Call for Papers

Goal and Scope

The goal of the ICSME 2026 Doctoral Symposium is to help the next generation of software engineering researchers form connections and gain advice on their software maintenance and evolution research, while providing a platform to (recent) doctoral students for presenting their work to the ICSME community. To support this goal, the Doctoral Symposium welcomes three types of submissions: early (pre-proposal) doctoral, late (post-proposal) doctoral, and post-doctoral.

Early Doctoral Submissions

This type of submissions is suited for students who are or are considering pursuing a doctoral degree in the general area of software maintenance and evolution but have not yet completed the dissertation proposal phase (or equivalent) of their program; if there is no formal dissertation proposal phase, the students should be in the first half of the time nominally allocated to completion of doctoral studies at their institution. Authors of accepted early doctoral papers will present their work and receive individual feedback from experienced researchers in the field during a closed mentoring session at the doctoral symposium.

Late Doctoral Submissions

This type of submissions is suited for PhD students currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the general area of software maintenance and evolution, who have completed the dissertation proposal phase (or equivalent) of their program, and/or are in the second half of the time nominally allocated to completion of doctoral studies at their institution. The students should: (a) be investigating specific research questions, (b) have a concrete research plan for completing their studies, and (c) have obtained initial results motivating their methodology and plan.

Authors of accepted late-doctoral papers will present their work during the doctoral symposium and receive feedback on their presentations.

Post-doctoral Submissions

Researchers who, between January 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, have completed their PhD dissertation in the general area of software maintenance and evolution may submit this type of papers.

Authors of accepted post-doctoral papers will present their work in the main ICSME program (as opposed to the doctoral symposium, as the other two types of submissions). The authors will be asked to participate and contribute to the doctoral symposium, as well.

Evaluation

All submissions that meet the submission criteria (see below) and fit the scope of the conference will be evaluated by the Doctoral Symposium chairs on the basis of their relevance to the ICSME community, their originality, and their technical soundness. Submissions that are not in compliance with the required submission format or that are out of the scope of the conference will be rejected without being reviewed. Submitted papers must comply with IEEE plagiarism policy and procedures.

Publication and Presentation

All accepted doctoral symposium papers will be included in the proceedings and published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. However, the authors of the early-doctoral papers will have the option not to publish them in the proceedings and the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. In addition, each author will have the opportunity to prepare and present a poster during the main ICSME conference at a public poster session to receive feedback from a larger audience. More presentation details will follow after notification of acceptance.

Submission Details

Papers must strictly adhere to the two-column IEEE conference proceedings format. Please use the templates available here. LaTeX users should use the following configuration: \documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}. Microsoft Word users should use the US Letter format template. Papers must not exceed 5 pages (including figures and appendices) plus up to 1 pages that contain ONLY references. Shorter submissions are welcomed, especially from the early doctoral students. All submissions must be in PDF and must be submitted online by the deadline via the ICSME 2026 Doctoral Symposium EasyChair conference management system. All authors, reviewers, and organizers are expected to uphold the IEEE Code of Conduct.

Authors should indicate the names of their supervisors and their email address. However, supervisors should not be listed as co-authors of the submission. Submissions are expected to be written solely by the (post)doctoral researchers.

Early Doctoral Submissions

The Early Doctoral submission should include a description of the research topic that will likely lead to the doctoral dissertation. Focus on defining the addressed problem and its importance, the main research questions you plan to address, and the main research methods to be used, while highlighting the gaps in the field and related work. Articulate the expected contributions of the proposed work and include early results, if any.
The submission should not be a research paper reduced in size to fit the symposium format.

Late Doctoral Submissions

The Late Doctoral submission should include a statement of the general technical problem addressed, its importance, and the specific research questions under investigation. Provide an overview of the related research background in the context of the work being conducted, a sketch of the research methodology, the envisioned contributions, a description of the evaluation method, and the results obtained so far, and the plan of work for graduation. Your goal should be to convey the novelty and breadth of your research, so this should not simply be a research paper reduced in size to fit the symposium format.

Post-doctoral Submissions

The Post-doctoral submission should be a synopsis of the PhD dissertation, focusing on the research problem addressed, its contributions, evidence documenting these contributions, and a statement of their innovation and importance. The first of the submission’s references should be the author’s dissertation, including a URL where it is accessible.

Submission Link

Please use the following link to submit to the Doctoral Symposium: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icsme2026

Use of AI and LLMs

Authors should adhere to the guidelines for AI-generated content published by IEEE. IEEE requires that all content (including, but not limited to, figures, text, images, tables, and code) generated by AI be disclosed. The AI system should be identified, and specific sections of the article that utilize AI-generated content should be noted and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level of AI system involvement in producing the content. Read more at the link above. The paper chairs will investigate cases brought to their attention.

Important Dates

All submission dates are at 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)

• Paper submission: Wednesday, June 3, 2026
• Author notification: Wednesday, June 24, 2026
• Camera ready: TBD

For any questions, please contact the Doctoral Symposium chairs.