*** Call for Contributions ***

37th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering
(ISSRE 2026)

October 20-23, 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina
Limassol, Cyprus

https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/


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:

• Research (RES) papers
• Practical experience reports (PER)
• 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.


Industry Track Paper Categories

The ISSRE Industry Track gathers industry representatives as well as researchers from,
within or in collaboration with industry to discuss software reliability, quality assurance as
well as experiences and lessons learned. This year we will bring experiences from self-
made tools, usage of AI, generative AI and machine learning in relation to software
reliability.

Industry track papers are expected to be of interest to software development
professionals, as well as to anyone researching or working in the area of software
reliability, software quality, and process improvement groups, with concrete relevance to
industrial problems and practical applications.

We invite three kinds of submissions to the Industry Track:

• Enlightening Talk or Tool Demo: 1-2 page abstract (OR a Power Point presentation OR a
video for a tool demo).
• Short paper: 4-pages (including references).
• Full paper: 6-pages (including references).

All the submissions will be reviewed by members of the Industry Track Program
Committee. Accepted papers (with an abstract) will be included in the ISSRE Supplemental
Proceedings and submitted for publication to IEEE Xplore.


Fast Abstracts and Project Highlights Track

A Fast Abstract (FA) or Project Highlights (PH) paper is a two-page, lightly reviewed
technical article. The FA/PH track at ISSRE 2026 aims to bring together researchers and
practitioners working in Software Reliability Engineering (SRE) to:

• Introduce early original ideas.
• Discuss relevant work-in-progress and ongoing experiences.
• Challenge the SRE status quo on key topics.
• Present critical analyses of prior work.
• Share lessons learned from real-world SRE applications.
• Propose new problems from industrial or academic experience.
• Describe approaches to problems of significance that may not yet have complete results.

In addition to traditional Fast Abstracts, the track welcomes Project Highlights (PH) papers.
PH papers are expected to disseminate results, visions, methodologies, tools, and ongoing
activities from national and international research projects (e.g., European, or multi-
institutional initiatives).

Project Highlights may include, but are not limited to:
• Overviews of funded research projects and their objectives.
• Project methodologies, architectures, and experimental frameworks.
• Early or intermediate results, including lessons learned and preliminary insights.
• Datasets, benchmarks, tools, platforms, and other project outcomes released or in
progress.
• Collaboration experiences, challenges, and emerging research directions from national
or international projects.

Project Highlights that can stimulate discussion and collaboration within the ISSRE
community are welcome. Ongoing projects and projects completed not earlier than
October 2025 are eligible.


Replications and Negative Results 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.

• 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.

• 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.


Best Paper Awards

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

Industry Track
The Industry Program Chair will select three candidates among top-ranked papers
presenting and motivating novel and disruptive ideas that address problems relevant for
industry. Selection will be based on the reviewers’ feedback, novelty and potential impact
of the results. The final selection of the best paper will be done by the audience attending
the presentation of the candidate papers. Eligible papers must be (1) full papers accepted
to the industry track, and (2) co-authored by at least one author whose primary affiliation
is in Industry.


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 (under negotiation as
in previous editions of the conference). The Call for Papers will be available soon.


Workshop Proposals

ISSRE strives to be the conference that appeals to both researchers and practitioners. To
that end, we invite proposals for workshops to co-locate with the Symposium and provide
additional opportunities for collaborating and exchanging information. The workshops
aim at discussing research developments and challenges at an early stage. ISSRE welcomes
workshops that explore new ways to provide and assess software reliability, safety, and
security. We also seek workshops that deal with the provision of reliable, safe, and secure
software and systems in fast-growing, transformative application domains. Appropriately
defined workshop proposals have the following characteristics:

• They offer researchers a forum to exchange and discuss scientific and engineering ideas
at an early stage before maturation that would warrant conference or journal publication.
• They attract practitioners and researchers to working sessions to discuss and make
progress toward solutions to current and future problems in engineering high assurance
software and systems.
• They focus on collaborative discussions and information sharing between researchers
and industry practitioners.

Workshops affiliated with ISSRE in previous years with good organization and numbers of
participants are pre-approved. Their organizers do not need to submit a new workshop
proposal. Their organizers are kindly asked to inform the workshop chairs about returning
the workshop to ISSRE in 2026.


Submission Guidelines and Instructions

Research Track
https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/cfp-research/

Industry Track
https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/industry-track/

Fast Abstracts and Project Highlights Track
https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/fast-abstract-track/

Replications and Negative Results Track
https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/cfp-rene-track/

Workshop Proposals
https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/call-for-workshop-proposals/


Conference 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).


Important Dates (AoE)

Research Track
• Abstract Submission Deadline: April 10, 2026
• Paper Submission Deadline: April 17, 2026
• Author Rebuttal Period: June 5 – June 8, 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

Industry Track
• Abstract Submission Deadline: June 28, 2026 & July 3, 2026
• Paper Submission Deadline: July 5, 2026 & July 12, 2026
• Notification to Authors: August 12, 2026
• Camera Ready Papers: August 19, 2026
• Enlightening Talks or Tool Demos (without abstract; not to appear in the proceedings): August 15, 2026

Fast Abstracts and Projects Highlights Track
• Submission deadline: June 15, 2026
• Notification to authors: August 5, 2026
• Camera ready papers: August 19, 2026

Replications and Negative Results Track
• Submission deadline: July 5, 2026
• Notification to authors: August 12, 2026
• Camera ready papers: August 19, 2026

Workshop Proposals
• Workshop proposal deadline: May 14, 2026
• Workshop proposal notification: May 21, 2026
• Workshop paper submission deadline: July 20, 2026
(NOTE: This date is only indicative – please refer to individual workshop webpages for
information about deadlines)
• Workshop paper notification to authors: August 10, 2026
• Camera ready papers: August 17, 2026

All tracks
• Author Registration Deadline: August 19, 2026


Organisation

General Chairs
• Leonardo Mariani, University of Milano - Bicocca, Italy
• George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Program Coordinator
• Roberto Natella, GSSI, Italy

Research Program Committee Chairs
• Domenico Cotroneo, UNC Charlotte, USA
• Jie M. Zhang, King's College London, UK

Industry Program Chairs
• Jinyang Liu, Bytedance, USA
• Sigrid Eldh, Ericsson AB, Sweden

Workshop Chairs
• Georgia Kapitsaki, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
• August Shi, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

Doctoral Symposium Chairs
• Stefan Winter, LMU Munich, Germany
• Lili Wei, McGill University, Canada

Fast Abstract Chairs
• Luigi Lavazza, University of Insubria, Italy
• Yintong Huo, SMU, Singapore

JIC2 Chair
• Helene Waeselynck, LAAS-CNRS, France

Publicity Chairs
• Allison K. Sulivan, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA
• Jose D'Abruzzo Pereira, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Publication Chairs
• Sherlock Licorish, Otago Business School, New Zealand
• Maria Teresa Rossi, GSSI, Italy

Artifact Evaluation Chairs
• Naghmeh Ivaki, University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Fumio Machida, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Diversity and Inclusion Chair
• Eleni Constantinou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Financial Chair
• Costas Pattichis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Web Chairs
• Michalis Ioannides, Easy Conferences LTD
• Elena Masserini, University of Milano - Bicocca, Italy

Registration Chair
• Easy Conferences LTD