Context

The International Systems and Software Product Lines Conference (SPLC) is the leading conference on variability and configuration of hardware and software systems. Researchers, practitioners, and educators present and discuss the most recent research breakthroughs, ideas, trends, experiences, challenges and solutions to advance the state-of-the-art. SPLC is ranked as a top conference and for this 27th edition, we strive to continue the success of previous years by welcoming high-quality submissions for the research track with a special emphasis on the theme of intelligent software product lines. This theme acknowledges the increasing use of machine intelligence techniques (neural and symbolic machine learning) for a variety of purposes, including to predict the performance of variants, assist configuration tasks, or drive the generation of variants of interest. How humans interact with such AI techniques is also in the scope of this special theme. This theme completes the topics of the conference (see below), and we continue welcoming submissions in numerous closely related areas, such as configurable systems, product configuration, and software variability.

Similarly to the past years, we will award the best research paper and the best student paper. There will be an open special issue in the Elsevier Journal of Systems and Software (JSS, impact factor: 3.514). This special issue will have Iris Reinhartz-Berger, Gilles Perrouin, and David Benavides as guest editors.  All candidates for best paper awards will be invited to submit enhanced versions of their work to the special issue. Details of the call will be published on this website. The submission deadline for this special issue is January, 31st, 2024.

Topics

The following is a list of topics of interest to SPLC, but we also invite submissions to related topics, i.e., this list is by no means exhaustive. If in doubt, feel free to ask the track chairs (see below).

• AI: genetic algorithms, neural networks, and machine learning for product lines
• Architecture, design, and visualization of product lines
• Dynamic software product lines, reconfigurable systems, (self-)adaptive systems
• Evolution, maintenance, and continuous integration for product lines (e.g., DevOps)
• Formal methods and SPL verification techniques (e.g., program analysis, model checking)
• Green and sustainable technologies for variation
• Human, organizational and social aspects of product lines (e.g., BPM, collaborative modeling and development, cooperative configuration processes, economics, program comprehension)
• Language product lines, and domain-specific and programming languages for product lines
• Multi product lines, program families, product lines of product lines, software ecosystems
• Non-functional properties: modeling, analysis, and optimization (e.g., performance, energy)
• Reverse engineering, variability mining and refactoring (e.g., migration from clone-and-own)
• Recommender systems for configurators and feature models (e.g., CSP/SAT/SMT solvers)
• Specification and modeling of SPL (e.g., domain-specific modeling, model-driven engineering)
• Testing product lines (e.g., product sampling, test-case selection and prioritization, mutations)
• Variability management and variability modeling (e.g., feature models, decision models)

Submission Guidelines

The research track is open to submissions in two categories:

• Full papers describing original results of conceptual, theoretical, empirical, or experimental research. The papers in this category must rely on theoretical or empirical evaluation.
• Short papers describing emerging ideas or outstanding challenges along with possible approaches for resolving them.

In this 27th edition of SPLC, we will follow a double-blind review process. The identity of authors will not be known to the program committee at any time during the process. The papers submitted must not reveal the authors’ identities in any way.

• Authors should leave out author names and affiliations from the body of their submission.
• Authors should ensure that any citation to related work by themselves is written in the third person, that is, “the prior work of XYZ” as opposed to “our prior work”.
• Authors should avoid providing URLs to author-revealing sites (tools, data sets). The paper can mention the existence of such sites, but the visit of such sites should not be needed to conduct the review.
• Authors should anonymize author-revealing company names, yet can provide general characteristics of the organizations involved needed to understand the context of the paper.

Authors having further questions on double-blind reviewing are encouraged to contact the Program Chairs by email. Papers that do not comply with the double-blind review process will be desk-rejected.
Each submission will be carefully reviewed by at least three members of the research track program committee. The page limit is 10 pages of content (+ 2 pages for references) for full papers and 5 pages of content (+ 2 pages for references) for short papers. Submissions must adhere to the latest ACM Master Article Template:
https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template

Latex users should use the “sigconf” option, so they are recommended to use the template that can be found in “sample-sigconf.tex”. In this way, the following latex code can be placed at the start of the latex document to create a double column layout:

\documentclass[sigconf,review,anonymous]{acmart} \acmConference[SPLC’23]{27th ACM International Systems and Software Product Lines Conference}{August 28 – September 1, 2023}{Tokyo, Japan}

The SPLC proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library.

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. The collection process has started and will roll out as a requirement throughout 2022. We are committed to improve author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

The author of the accepted submission must pay a full registration fee for the submission to be published. SPLC 2023 is primarily a physical event and papers are expected to be presented on site, except where no co-author is able to attend SPLC 2023 in Tokyo. If any co-author of a paper is attending physically, they will need to present the paper. If no co-author is able to come to Tokyo to present an accepted paper, we ask that you let us know for which paper no co-author is able to present in-person. Such remote presenters will be accommodated for presenting online, live where feasible or else via a recording in exceptional circumstances.

Submission link

Submissions need to be sent using EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=splc23 (Research Track)

 

Artifact Evaluation

Authors of accepted and conditionally accepted research papers are invited to submit the artifacts associated with the paper for evaluation. 

According to ACM’s “Result and Artifact Review and Badging” policy, an “artifact” is “a digital object that was either created by the authors to be used as part of the study or generated by the experiment itself [… which can include] software systems, scripts used to run experiments, input datasets, raw data collected in the experiment, or scripts used to analyze results.”

To submit an artifact, you should submit via EasyChair (select the Research Artifacts track) a PDF file containing: 

• a stable URL (or DOI) to the artifacts – the page must include the steps or general instructions to execute/analyze the artifact; and
• the paper as an appendix.      

Each artifact submission will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. At this stage, we do not require anonymization of the artifact’s authors. The Artifact Evaluation PC does not overlap with the Research Track PC. The acceptance of artifacts related to conditionally accepted papers is subject to the acceptance of the corresponding papers.

Accepted artifacts will receive one of the following badges on the first page of the paper, table of contents, and in the ACM Digital Library:

1. Artifacts Evaluated – This badge is applied to papers whose associated artifacts have
   successfully completed an independent audit. Artifacts need not be made publicly
   available to be considered for this badge. However, they do need to be made available
   to reviewers. Two levels are distinguished, only one of which should be applied in any
   instance:
   • Functional – The artifacts associated with the research are found to be
     documented, consistent, complete, exercisable, and include appropriate
     evidence of verification and validation.
   • Reusable – The artifacts associated with the paper are of a quality that
     significantly exceeds minimal functionality. That is, they have all the qualities of
     the Artifacts Evaluated – Functional level, but, in addition, they are very
     carefully documented and well-structured to the extent that reuse and
     repurposing is facilitated. In particular, norms and standards of the research
     community for artifacts of this type are strictly adhered to.
2. Artifacts Available – This badge is applied to papers in which associated artifacts have
   been made permanently available for retrieval. Author-created artifacts relevant to this
   paper have been placed on a publically accessible archival repository. A DOI or link to
   this repository along with a unique identifier for the object is provided.

Each accepted research paper associated with an accepted artifact must provide a link to the artifact in the camera-ready version of the paper. The authors must ensure that the artifacts are available from a stable URL or DOI. Please note that these badges exclude proprietary data or tools.

Important Dates (AoE time)

• Abstract submission: April 13, 2023 April 27th, 2023 (23h59, AoE)
• Paper submission: April 20, 2023 May 1st, 2023 (23h59, AoE)
• Notification: May 30, 2023 June 5, 2023
• Artifact submission: June 2, 2023 June 8, 2023 (23h59, AoE)
• Artifact notification: June 20, 2023 June 30, 2023
• Camera-ready paper: June 23, 2023 July 4, 2023 (23h59, AoE)
• Conference: August 28 – September 1, 2023

Chairs

Contact: splc23researchtrack@easychair.org 

Program Committee

• Mathieu Acher, Univ Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, FR
• Shaukat Ali, Simula Research Laboratory, NO
• Juliana Alves Pereira, BR
• Wesley K. G. Assunção, Johannes Kepler University Linz, AUT
• David Benavides, University of Seville, ES
• Thorsten Berger, Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, SE
• Jan Bosch, Chalmers University of Technology, SE
• Goetz Botterweck, Trinity College Dublin, Lero, IE
• Carlos Cetina, San Jorge University, ES
• Loek Cleophas, TU Eindhoven; and Stellenbosch University, NL
• Myra Cohen, Iowa State University, USA
• Thelma E. Colanzi, State University of Maringá, BR
• Philippe Collet, Université Côte d’Azur – CNRS/I3S, FR
• Maxime Cordy, University of Luxembourg, LUX
• Xavier Devroey, University of Namur, BE
• Alessandro Fantechi, DINFO – Universita’ di Firenze, IT
• Alexander Felfernig, TU Graz, AUT
• Lidia Fuentes, Universidad de Málaga, ES
• Jessie Galasso, Geodes, DIRO, University of Montréal, CA
• José A. Galindo, University of Seville, ES
• Matthias Galster, University of Canterbury, NZ
• Paul Grünbacher, Johannes Kepler University Linz, AUT
• Jane Huang, University of Notre Dame, USA
• Fuyuki Ishikawa, National Institute of Informatics, JP
• Tomoji Kishi, Waseda University, JP
• Jakob Krüger, TU Eindhoven, NL
• Axel Legay, UCLouvain, BE
• Malte Lochau, University of Siegen, GER
• Tomi Männistö, University of Helsinki, FI
• Jabier Martinez, Tecnalia, ES
• Mohammadreza Mousavi, King’s College London, UK
• Edson Oliveirajr, State University of Maringá, BR
• Rick Rabiser, Johannes Kepler University Linz, AUT
• Camille Salinesi, CRI, Université de Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, FR
• Ina Schaefer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, GER
• Klaus Schmid, University of Hildesheim, GER
• Laura Semini, University of Pisa, IT
• Daniel Strüber, Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL
• Leopoldo Teixeira, Informatics Center, Federal University of Pernambuco, BR
• Paul Temple, Université de Rennes 1, FR
• Thomas Thüm, University of Ulm, GER
• Mahsa Varshosaz, IT University of Copenhagen, DK
• Silvia Vergilio, UFPR, BR
• Michael Vierhauser, Johannes Kepler University Linz, AUT
• Hironori Washizaki, Waseda University, JP
• Tewfik Ziadi, Sorbonne Université-CNRS 7606, LIP6, FR

Artifacts Committee

• Thiago  Ferreira,  College of Innovation & Technology, UM-Flint, USA
• Thomas Georges, Montpellier University, FR
• Lea Gerling, University of Hildesheim, GER
• Jacopo  Mauro, University of Southern Denmark, DK
• Kristof  Meixner, Vienna University of Technology, AT
• Gabriela Karoline Michelon, Marquardt Group, GER
• Luca Paolini, Dip. Informatica – Universita di Torino, IT
• Clément Quinton, University of Lille, FR
• Edilton  Lima Dos Santos, University of Namur, BE