Research PapersVARIABILITY 2026

This page contains the Call for Papers of the research track and additional information.

Call for Papers

The International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026) invites high-quality contributions from researchers and practitioners in software engineering, systems engineering, and related disciplines focussing on a broad spectrum of methods, concepts, and tools for variability. VARIABILITY aims to be the premier forum for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and results in all aspects of software and systems variability management, reuse, software configuration, and customization.

As software and systems become increasingly configurable, reusable, and adaptable, managing their variability across all lifecycle phases is more critical—and more challenging—than ever. VARIABILITY 2026 seeks to bring together the diverse communities that address these challenges from theoretical, technical, and practical perspectives.

VARIABILITY results from a merge of three prominent conferences focussing on software and systems variability, configuration and reuse: SPLC (the International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, 29 successful editions), VaMoS (the International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 19 successful editions), and ICSR (the International Conference on Systems and Software Reuse, 22 successful editions).

VARIABILITY is by design open as a conference. It welcomes new fields of variability-intensive research, such as artificial intelligence, hybrid software-hardware systems, etc. For this first edition of VARIABILITY, we strive to continue the success of the predecessor conferences ICSR, SPLC, and VaMoS by welcoming high-quality submissions for the research track in numerous closely related areas, such as systems and software product lines, systems and software reuse, configurable systems and software, product configuration, and systems and software variability. We will award the best research paper and the best artifact paper.

Topics of Interest

We invite contributions on variability management, reuse, and configuration across all phases of the software and systems lifecycle. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Requirements & Domain Engineering

• Domain analysis and variability modeling
• Decision modeling and support
• Customization and personalization specification
• Requirements variability and traceability

Architecture & Design

• Variability-aware software architectures
• Architecture-centric product line engineering
• Model-driven engineering (MDE)
• Multi-product lines, program families, product lines of product lines, software ecosystems

Implementation & Code Generation

• Generative programming and code synthesis
• Modularization techniques for reusable code
• Programming languages and frameworks for variability
• Open-source strategies for software reuse

Testing, Verification & Quality Assurance

• Testing and analysis of configurable systems
• Safety and security in variable systems
• Formal Methods for Software Product Lines
• Non-functional properties: quality-aware analysis, quality-driven configuration
• Reuse in testing, verification, and quality assurance

Evolution, Maintenance & Operation

• Refactoring and restructuring of configurable systems
• Reverse engineering, variability mining, and refactoring
• Runtime variability and dynamic (software) product lines
• Maintenance strategies for large-scale reused systems
• Variability in DevOps and CI/CD pipelines

AI and Data-Driven Methods

• Machine learning for variability management
• AI-assisted product configuration
• Data and repository mining from product lines and configuration histories
• Recommendation systems for reuse and customization

Industrial Applications and Tool Support

• Variability and reuse in AI, cyber-physical systems, robotics, automotive, aerospace, quantum computing, etc.
• Sustainable technologies for variation and sustainable software reuse approaches
• Human, organizational, and social aspects of variable systems and software
• Industrial case studies and lessons learned
• Tools support for all activities in variability management, configuration, and reuse

Submission Guidelines

We invite the following types of submissions:

• Full Papers (up to 16 pages excluding references): Research papers must present original, unpublished work with validated results through empirical evaluation, formal analysis, or implementation-based experiments. Submissions must clearly articulate the problem, its relevance, the proposed contribution, and validation results.
• Short Papers (6 - 8 pages excluding references): Short papers present early-stage research, novel ideas, or conceptual proposals that are not yet fully developed or validated but offer promising directions. These papers should articulate the vision, motivation, and potential impact.

All papers must be original and not under review elsewhere. Submissions will be double-blind and reviewed by at least three experts. Submissions will be evaluated based on their novelty, relevance, rigor, transparency, and presentation. Authors of submissions to the first deadline might be invited to submit a revision of their papers to the second deadline, which will be reviewed as a revision. Accepted papers will be published in the VARIABILITY 2026 Proceedings (in Springer LNCS, to be confirmed).

Revisions

Research-track papers can be submitted to the first or second cycle. In the first cycle, papers can receive the following decisions: accept, revision, or reject. Revision means that the reviewers believe that the paper has potential, but that its quality or contribution is not yet ready for publication. Such papers are offered lightweight shepherding by a community member, who is not necessarily a PC member or reviewer. Revised papers should be submitted to the second cycle together with a response letter, explaining how the reviewer comments were addressed. They are then reviewed by the same PC members. Papers rejected in the first cycle can be resubmitted in the second cycle, but need to contain an appendix “Changes to First-Cycle Submission” at the end of the PDF (after references, regardless of the page limit) that lists the major changes in bullet-point format.