Call for Papers

Software visualization is a broad research area encompassing concepts, methods, tools, and techniques that assist in a range of software engineering and software development activities. Covered aspects include the development and evaluation of approaches for visually analyzing software and software systems, including their structure, execution behavior, and evolution.

The VISSOFT IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization continues the history of the ACM SOFTVIS Symposium on Software Visualization and the IEEE VISSOFT International Workshop on Visualizing Software for Understanding and Analysis. The conference focuses on visualization techniques that target aspects of software maintenance and evolution, program comprehension, reverse engineering, and reengineering, i.e., how visualization helps professionals to understand, analyze, test and evolve software. We aim to gather tool developers, experts, users, and researchers from software engineering, information visualization, computer education, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction to discuss theoretical foundations, algorithms, techniques, tools, and applications related to software visualization. We seek technical papers, empirical studies, applications, or case studies and provide a platform for presenting novel research ideas and tools.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Innovative visualization and visual analytics techniques for software engineering data, such as,
    • source code
    • static and dynamic dependencies
    • software evolution and repositories
    • software documentation
    • web services
    • protocol, log, and performance data
    • configuration management, DevOps, production systems
    • parallel techniques
    • database schemes
    • software security and privacy issues
    • workflow and business processes
  • Visualization to support program comprehension, software testing, and debugging
  • Interaction techniques and algorithms for software visualization
  • Visualization-based techniques in computer science and software engineering education
  • Integration of software visualization tools and development environments
  • Empirical evaluation of software visualization
  • Industrial experience on using software visualization
  • Task-specific visualization support for software engineering tasks

Papers are solicited that present original, unpublished research results and will be rigorously reviewed by an international program committee. In addition to technical papers, VISSOFT features a New Ideas or Emerging Results (NIER) track and a Tool track related to the same list of topics suggested above. All accepted submissions will appear in the conference proceedings and the IEEE Digital Library.

Submission Types

Technical papers (up to 10 pages):

These contributions describe in-depth mature research results in the above-mentioned areas of interest. The submission of a video (up to 5 minutes in length) to accompany the paper is highly encouraged to show interaction possibilities. Authors who wish to submit such video should provide a URL to the video. Technical papers have to be maximum 10 pages long (including bibliography and annexes). Authors will be given the opportunity to provide a response to reviewer requests for clarifications before final decision.

Important Dates:
Abstract submission date: April 18, 2016
Paper submission date: April 25, 2016
Author response period: May 30 - June 3, 2016
Notification: June 10, 2016
Camera-Ready: August 12, 2016

Submission Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vissoft2016

Submission Format: Submissions must be formatted according to the ICSME 2016 Formatting Instructions.

Special issue: We plan to invite a selection of the technical papers accepted at VISSOFT 2016 to submit an extended version to the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Artifacts: Traditionally, technical research papers are published without including any artifacts (such as tools, data, models, videos, etc.), even though the artifacts may serve as crucial and detailed evidence for the quality of the results that the associated paper offers. Following the effort initiated at ESEC/FSE’11, authors of accepted technical papers at VISSOFT 2016 can have their artifacts evaluated by the program committee. Positively evaluated artifacts will be reflected in the paper publication, presentation, and be formally announced during the conference. More information about the artifact evaluation process may be found on artifact-eval.org.

Important Dates:
Artifact submission: June 26, 2016
Artifact notification: July 15, 2016
Camera-Ready: August 12, 2016

Submission Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vissoft2016artifacts

NIER papers and Tool Demo papers (up to 5 pages):

We accept two types of paper submissions: NIER contributions (New Ideas and Emerging Results) and Tool contributions.

The NIER contributions describe work-in-progress and preliminary exciting results. Authors should include open questions and even provocative hypotheses to get early feedback on their research ideas or even support through new research collaborations. NIER papers have to be maximum 5 pages long (including bibliography and annexes).

Tool contributions describe the design or actual utilization of software visualization tools, with a focus on relevant tool construction aspects or the use of the tool for gaining new insights. Authors should be prepared to demonstrate their tool at the conference. The submission may also contain a link to a screencast (video). Tools papers have to be maximum 5 pages long (including bibliography and annexes).

Important Dates:
Paper submission date: June 27, 2016
Notification: July 29, 2016
Camera-Ready: August 12, 2016

Submission Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vissoft2016niertool

Submission Format: Submissions must be formatted according to the ICSME 2016 Formatting Instructions.

Best Paper Award

This year Microsoft will sponsor the Best Paper Award. The award is the Microsoft Band 2. The award will be given during the social event.

Important Dates

All dates refer to midnight 23:59:59 AoE.

Research Papers NIER/Tool Demos
Abstract Submission: April 18, 2016
Paper Submission: April 25, 2016 June 27, 2016
Author Response Period: May 30 - June 3, 2016
Author Notification: June 10, 2016 July 29, 2016
Artifact Submission: June 26, 2016
Artifact Notification: July 15, 2016
Camera-Ready Copies: August 12, 2016 August 12, 2016