Call for Papers - Research Track

The International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE) is the leading conference on software reliability research and practice. ISSRE focuses on techniques and tools for assessing, predicting, and improving the reliability, safety, security, and resilience of software systems. As modern software increasingly integrates AI/ML components, operates autonomously, and spans cloud-to-edge environments, ensuring reliable system behavior is more critical than ever.

Topics of Interest

ISSRE 2026 invites high-quality contributions that advance the theory and practice of software reliability across contemporary software-intensive systems, including systems that incorporate AI/ML components. Topics of interest include, but are not
limited to:

  • Foundations of Reliability and Dependability
    • Principles, models, metrics, empirical methods, and theories of software reliability, resilience, robustness, and safety
    • Systematic approaches to fault prevention, fault removal, fault tolerance, and fault forecasting in modern software systems
    • Testing and debugging, formal methods, model checking, static/dynamic analysis, verification, and runtime assurance
  • Reliability in AI-Driven and Autonomic Systems
    • Reliability engineering for AI-enabled, autonomous, self-adaptive, and cyber-physical systems
    • Assurance, testing, verification, and certification of AI/ML components, including foundation and generative models
    • Reliability of AI-generated code: validation, verification, explainability, defect analysis, and trustworthy automation of development tasks
    • Impact of AI on software lifecycle processes (design, testing, evolution, operations, and quality management)
  • AI Techniques for Reliability Engineering
    • Machine learning for defect prediction, anomaly detection, debugging assistance, fault localization, and test automation
    • Learning-based approaches to self-healing, resilience management, predictive maintenance, and reliability optimization
    • Reliability governance in AI-driven DevOps pipelines, including transparency, interpretability, and auditability
  • Software Reliability in Emerging System Domains
    • Reliability assurance for cloud, edge, IoT, 5G/6G, cyber-physical, high-performance, and network softwarization environments
    • Dependability of open-source ecosystems, data-driven pipelines, model hubs, and AI-assisted contributions
    • Benchmarking, stress testing, workload modeling, and measurement frameworks for large-scale and AI-based systems
  • Trustworthiness, Security, and Responsible Software Engineering
    • Intersections of reliability with security, privacy, fairness, transparency, and regulatory compliance
    • Societal, ethical, and human impacts of pervasive AI-enabled software systems
    • Responsible governance of AI-based systems, including lifecycle assurance, auditability, and risk analysis
  • Human-Centered, Empirical, and Reproducible Reliability Research
    • Field studies, experience reports, user studies, and human factors in reliability engineering
    • Public datasets, benchmark suites, reproducibility packages, and replication/negative-result studies
    • Tooling, automation, continuous reliability monitoring, observability, and operational feedback loops

Research Track Paper Categories

The research track at ISSRE 2026 invites high-quality submissions of technical research papers that describe original, unpublished results exploring new scientific ideas, contribute new evidence to established research directions, or reflect on practical experience. Specifically, ISSRE solicits submissions in three categories:

    1. Research (RES) papers
    2. Practical experience reports (PER)
    3. Tools and artefacts (TAR) papers

Papers will be assessed with criteria appropriate to each category. All the papers of the three categories are regular and full papers, and will be published in the same ISSRE proceedings.

RES Papers

RES papers (12 pages, including references) should describe a novel contribution to the reliability of software systems. Novelty should be argued via concrete evidence and appropriate positioning within the state of the art. RES papers are also expected to explain the validation process and its limitations clearly.

PER Papers

PER papers (12 pages, including references) should provide an in-depth exposition of practical experiences ideally performed by a collaboration of researchers and industry practitioners. The key contribution of these papers should be lessons learned from applying established research tools and methods to ISSRE topics, or new knowledge acquired through empirical studies conducted using various research methodologies. Negative results are welcome, e.g., discussing where or why current research cannot be applied in an industrially relevant context.

TAR Papers

TAR papers (6 – 10 pages, including references) should describe a new tool or artefact. Tool-focused TAR papers must present either a new tool or a novel and substantial extension of an existing tool. They should include a description of (i) the theoretical foundations, (ii) the design and implementation aspects, and (iii) experiments with realistic case studies. Making the tool publicly available is strongly encouraged. Artefact-focused TAR papers should cover (i) a working copy of the software and (ii) experimental data sets. Dataset papers should introduce a new dataset that supports experimentation, benchmarking, evaluation, or training in AI-driven software engineering. Submissions should describe: (i) dataset motivation and scope, (ii) data collection and processing methodology, (iii) dataset structure and statistics, and (iv) potential use cases. Benchmark papers should present a new benchmark suite for evaluating tools, LLMs, or algorithms. Submissions should include: (i) benchmark design principles, (ii) task definitions and evaluation metrics, (iii) baseline results, and (iv) reproducibility package.

The ISSRE conference encourages authors of all three categories of research track papers to follow the principles of transparency, reproducibility, and replicability. Authors are encouraged to disclose data to increase reproducibility and replicability. Should the paper be accepted, the authors will have the opportunity (and are encouraged to) submit artifacts to the Artifact Evaluation (AE) track, to enhance the reproducibility and quality of the research. By submitting your artifacts, you not only contribute to the progress of our field but also stand a chance to earn badges that will be displayed on your papers in the conference proceedings, showcasing the credibility and rigor of your work.

At least one author of each accepted paper must register as an author and present the paper in person at the conference.

Important Dates (AoE)

  • Abstract Submission Deadline: April 10, 2026 April 24, 2026
  • Paper Submission Deadline: April 17, 2026 April 24, 2026
  • Author Rebuttal Period: June 5 – June 9, 2026
  • Decisions and Early Notification: June 15, 2026
  • Author Revision Period: June 16 – July 3, 2026
  • Notification to Authors: July 8, 2026
  • Camera Ready Papers: August 19, 2026

Special Journal Issue

Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a special issue of the Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) journal or another top rank journal (under negotiation). The Call for Papers will be available soon.

Review Process & Quality Assurance in ISSRE 2026 (New)

Each submission will receive three independent reviews and a meta-review authored by a Program Board (PB) member.

Program Board (PB) members oversee the review process to guarantee the integrity and quality of the selected papers. PB members validate the depth and constructiveness of the individual reviews, ensuring that every decision is supported by a comprehensive and well-justified evaluation.

Before final decisions are issued, authors will have the opportunity to submit a rebuttal. The purpose of the rebuttal is to ensure that reviewers and PB members base their decisions on correct information.

The rebuttal is strictly limited to the following:

  • Correcting factual errors present in the reviews
    (e.g., incorrect claims about what is or is not included in the paper)
  • Providing concise answers to specific questions explicitly asked by the reviewers

The rebuttal must not introduce new experiments, analyses, results, or novel content aimed at persuading reviewers beyond factual clarification. A strict size limit will apply, and rebuttals exceeding the limit or containing non-allowed material may be disregarded.

After receiving the rebuttal:

  • Reviewers may update their reviews to reflect corrected factual information
  • The assigned PB member will examine the rebuttal together with the reviews when formulating the final meta-review and decision

At the conclusion of the review and rebuttal cycle, each paper will receive one of
the following decisions:

  • Accept:
    The paper is accepted in its current form; no additional technical changes are required
  • Reject:
    The paper does not meet the acceptance criteria. Revisions within the available timeframe are unlikely to change the outcome
  • Major Revision:
    The paper shows strong potential but requires substantial, clearly defined improvements. Instead of rejecting the paper, reviewers identify a finite list of concrete criteria that authors may address during a dedicated revision period

Major Revision Guidelines

A Major Revision decision implies strong interest in the work, but acceptance is not guaranteed. Authors will receive clear, itemized criteria defining exactly what is required for acceptance (e.g., specific experiments, comparisons, proofs, or clarifications).

To ensure that revisions remain focused and traceable, authors must submit the
following three items:

  1. Revised manuscript, addressing only the required changes
  2. Response letter, detailing how each criterion has been satisfied
  3. Diff file (mandatory), clearly showing all modifications
    relative to the originally submitted version

The diff must highlight only the changes made to address the Major Revision criteria; introducing substantial new material or reshaping the paper beyond what is explicitly requested is not permitted.

The assigned Program Board (PB) member will evaluate the revision based on the required criteria and may consult the original reviewers for technical verification.

If the revisions are satisfactory and the updated results support the paper’s claims, the paper will be accepted. However, if the authors fail to address the requested criteria, or if the diff or the revised manuscript reveal extensive unrequested modifications or newly introduced issues, the paper will be
rejected.

Rapid Response Reviewers (RRRs)

To ensure the review process remains timely and resilient against unexpected delays, ISSRE 2026 utilizes Rapid Response Reviewers.

A select group of PC members serve as emergency reviewers, stepping in immediately if an assigned reviewer becomes unavailable. This mechanism tries to eliminate last-minute delays, ensuring that every author receives their notification on schedule without compromising review quality.

Best Research Paper Award

ISSRE is pleased to announce the IEEE Best Research Paper Award, awarded every year to the best paper in the Research Track.

Anonymizing Rules

Authors shall anonymize their papers. As an author, you should not identify yourself in the paper either explicitly or by implication (e.g., through references or acknowledgements).

However, only non-destructive anonymization is required. For example, the names of case study subjects may be left unanonymized if the subject’s name is essential for a reviewer to evaluate the work. In such cases, authors should avoid mentioning that a specific tool has been conceived or developed by them, as well as avoid citing papers they have co-authored in a way that reveals identity.

Authors may provide the name of a case study software system and the name of the entity developing it (e.g., a private company or foundation). If some of the authors are employees of the developing entity, they should not explicitly mention their affiliation but should instead clarify potential threats to validity (e.g., familiarity with the subject), as appropriate.

Please take the following steps when preparing your submission:

  • Remove authors’ names and affiliations from the title page
  • Remove acknowledgements of identifying names and funding sources
  • Use care in naming your files—e.g., source file names such as Joe.Smith.dvi are often embedded in the final output as readily accessible comments
  • Use care in referring to related work, particularly your own. Do not omit references to preserve anonymity, as this prevents reviewers from understanding the context. Instead, reference your past work in the third person, as you would any other related work
  • If you have a concurrent submission, reference it as follows: 

    “Closely related work describes a microkernel implementation [Anonymous 2026].”

    with the corresponding citation:

    “[Anonymous 2026] Under submission. Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.”

  • If you cite anonymous work, you must also send the deanonymized reference(s) to the Program Committee Chairs in a separate email
  • Authors may, at their discretion, use a non-anonymized version of the submitted work (e.g., to discuss it with colleagues, give talks, or publish it on arXiv). However, in doing so, authors must not state or imply that the work is under submission to ISSRE 2026

Submissions that do not conform to the submission deadline, anonymization, or formatting guidelines (e.g., excessive length, smaller fonts, or reduced line spacing), or that are unoriginal, previously published, or under submission to multiple venues, will be disregarded.

Formatting Rules

Submissions must adhere to the IEEE Computer Society Format Guidelines as implemented by the following LaTeX and Word templates:

Each paper must be submitted as a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file with all fonts embedded. Authors are strongly encouraged to print the PDF and review it for integrity (fonts, symbols, equations, etc.) before submission, as defective printing can undermine a paper’s chance of success.

Please take note of the following requirements:

  • Submissions must be anonymous
  • The first page must include the paper title and an abstract of no more than 200 words
  • The abstract will be used for paper bidding; therefore, it should clearly describe the paper’s goals and the means used to achieve them
  • The first page is part of the paper and may contain technical material; it counts toward the paper’s total page limit
  • The use of color in figures and graphs is permitted only if the paper remains readable when printed in grayscale
  • Symbols and labels used in graphs must be readable in print without requiring on-screen magnification
  • Authors should make a reasonable effort to keep the PDF file size under 15 MB

Authors of accepted papers are encouraged to supply source code and raw data to support replication and to help others better understand their results.

Paper Submission

Papers are submitted via Easychair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=issre2026

Submissions will be reviewed by the program committee through a double-blind reviewing process, with a limited use of outside referees. Papers will be held in complete confidence during the reviewing process, but papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms are not acceptable and will be rejected without review.

Changes in the number and order of authors will not be allowed after the paper acceptance.

Authors must anonymize their submissions in accordance with the guidelines above. Submissions violating the formatting and anonymization rules will be desk-rejected without review. There will be no extensions for reformatting.

Conference Proceedings

The authors of accepted papers must omit the paper’s type from the title to keep consistency among all the camera-ready versions in the Proceedings. The conference proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services (CPS). Papers presented at the conference will be submitted for inclusion into IEEE Xplore and to all of the A&I (abstracting and indexing) partners (such as the EI Compendex).

IEEE Conference Publishing Policies

All submissions must adhere to IEEE Conference Publishing Policies <Submission Policies – IEEE Author Center Conferences>.

IEEE Cross Check

All submissions will be screened for plagiarism using the IEEE CrossCheck portal.

ISSRE No-Show Policy

For full details on the No-Show Policy, visit the No-Show Policy page.