Call for Papers - Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Track

The Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Track has been introduced in the software engineering community for a while and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. This year, we establish this track at ISSRE and invite researchers to (1) replicate results from previous papers and (2) publish studies with important and relevant negative or null results (results that fail to show an effect, yet demonstrate the research paths that did not pay off).

We also encourage the publication of the negative results or replicable aspects of previously published work. For example, authors of a published paper reporting a working solution for a given problem can document in a “negative results paper” other (failed) attempts they made before defining the working solution they published.

    1. Replication studies. The papers in this category must go beyond simply re-implementing an algorithm and/or re-running the artifacts provided by the original paper. Such submissions should at least apply the approach to new data sets (open-source or proprietary). A replication study should clearly report on results that the authors were able to replicate, as well as on the aspects of the work that were not replicable.
    2. Negative results papers. We seek papers that report on negative results. We seek negative results for all types of program comprehension research in any empirical area (qualitative, quantitative, case study, experiment, etc.). For example, did your controlled experiment not show an improvement over the baseline? Even if negative, results obtained are still valuable when they are either not obvious or disprove widely accepted wisdom.

Evaluation Criteria

Both Replication Studies and Negative Results submissions will be evaluated according to the following standards:

    • Depth and breadth of the empirical studies
    • Clarity of writing
    • Appropriateness of conclusions
    • Amount of useful, actionable insights
    • Availability of artifacts
    • Underlying methodological rigor. A negative result due primarily to misaligned expectations or due to lack of statistical power (small samples) is not a good submission. The negative result should be a result of a lack of effect, not a lack of methodological rigor.

Most importantly, we expect replication studies to clearly point out the artifacts upon which the study is built, and to provide the links to all the artifacts in the submission (the only exception will be given to those papers that replicate the results on proprietary datasets that can not be publicly released).

Submission Instructions

Submissions must be original, in the sense that the findings and writing have not been previously published or under consideration elsewhere. However, as either replication studies or negative results, some overlap with previous work is expected. Please make clear in the paper the overlap with and difference from previous work.

All submissions must be in PDF format and conform, at time of submission, to the IEEE Computer Society Format Guidelines as implemented by the following LaTeX and Word templates:

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. By submitting to the ISSRE RENE Track, authors acknowledge that they are aware of and agree to be bound by the IEEE Plagiarism FAQ. In particular, papers submitted to the RENE track must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under review or submitted for review elsewhere whilst under consideration for ISSRE 2026. Contravention of this concurrent submission policy will be deemed a serious breach of scientific ethics, and appropriate action will be taken in all such cases. To check for double submission and plagiarism issues, the chairs reserve the right to (1) share the list of submissions with the PC Chairs of other conferences with overlapping review periods and (2) use external plagiarism detection software, under contract to the IEEE, to detect violations of these policies.

Submissions to the RENE Track can be made via the ISSRE RENE track submission site： https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=issre2026.

Submission Length: The ISSRE RENE Track accepts submissions of two lengths:

(1) New replication studies and new descriptions of negative results should have a length of up to 10 pages, plus 2 pages which may only contain references.

(2) Negative results documented during the preparation of previously published work by the authors should be described in up to 5 pages, plus 1 page, which may only contain references (e.g., as previously mentioned, authors of a published paper can document negative results they obtained while working on it, such as methodologically sound solutions that did not work).

Important note 1: Both types of papers (replication and negative results) will be included as part of the main conference proceedings (pending approval).

Important note 2: The RENE track does not follow a double-anonymous review process.

Publication and Presentation

Upon notification of acceptance, all authors of accepted papers will receive further instructions for preparing the camera-ready versions of their submissions. If a submission is accepted, at least one author of the paper is required to have a full registration for ISSRE 2026, attend the conference, and present the paper in person. All accepted papers will be published in the conference electronic proceedings. The presentation is expected to be delivered in person, unless this is impossible due to travel limitations (e.g., related to health or visa). Details about the presentations will follow the notifications.

The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the IEEE Digital Libraries. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

Purchases of additional pages in the proceedings are not allowed.

Important Dates (AoE)

  • Paper Submission: July 05, 2026
  • Notification to Authors: August 12, 2026
  • Camera Ready Papers Submission: August 19, 2026