Research Papers
The 28th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE’20) is the premier requirements engineering conference, where researchers, practitioners, students, and educators meet, present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, experiences and issues in the field of requirements engineering (RE).
The RE’20 theme is requirements engineering for a digital world, which involves both classic and contemporary problems. An example of a classic problem is to specify digital systems that must satisfy requirements in the real world. Examples of contemporary problems are mining requirements from user feedback, intertwining requirements with digital design in innovative products, and how to specify and validate requirements for intelligent and self-learning systems. The challenges also include general problems during the transition toward a digital world such as managing uncertainty, establishing transparency and maintaining trust. The RE’20 Research Track invites original submissions of research papers in the categories described below.
Categories for Research Papers
Technical solution papers present solutions for requirements-related problems that are novel or significantly improve on existing solutions. This includes new algorithms or mathematical theory, novel tools, modeling languages, infrastructures or other technologies; and requirements elicitation, prioritization or analysis methods. These papers are mainly evaluated with regard to problem relevance and motivation, novelty and comparison to existing work, clarity of presentation, technical soundness, and evidence for its benefits.
Scientific evaluation papers evaluate existing problem situations or evaluate real-world artifacts or validate/refute proposed solutions by scientific means. This includes experiments, case studies, and surveys reporting qualitative or quantitative data and findings. The papers are mainly evaluated with regard to the soundness of research questions and appropriateness/correctness of study design, data analysis, and threats to validity. Replications are welcome. For papers reporting on the application of some solutions, lessons learned are particularly important.
Perspective papers explore the history, successes, and challenges of requirements related practices and research agendas, and outline research roadmaps for the future. Literature reviews are also included in this category and must distill novel knowledge, present new insights and not be merely compilative. These papers are evaluated based on the insights they offer to the reader and the corresponding arguments, and on their potential to shape future research.
Topics of Interest
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Requirements elicitation, prioritization, and negotiation
- Design thinking and open innovation
- Innovation through creativity
- Crowdsourcing and social media
- Social, cultural, and cognitive factors
- User feedback and usage monitoring
- Capturing and understanding users’ needs
- Natural language approaches
- Model-driven approaches
- Formal approaches
- Traceability
- Evolution and release planning
- Reuse
- Tools and standards
- Good-enough Requirements Engineering
- Agile and lean approaches
- Requirements engineering in Open Source
- Complex systems
- Product lines and value chains
- Software ecosystems, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud technologies
- Requirements Engineering for Smart Cities, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Systems of Systems
- Geographically-dispersed teams
- Culturally-divergent requirements efforts
- Embedded systems
- Open source software
- Privacy and Security
- Sustainability
- Mobility
- Cyber-physical systems
- User experience
- Quality factors
- Safety and security
- Test approaches
- Value creation techniques
- Product evolution
- Requirements and marketing
- Requirements and law
- Learning from practice
- Transferring technology from academia to industry
- Transferring technology across industries
- Transferring technology across domains
- Identifying best practices
- Improving productivity
Artifacts
The authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to increase the visibility of their artifacts (software and data) and to obtain an artifact badge. Upon acceptance, the authors can submit their artifacts, which will be evaluated by a committee that determines their sustained availability and reusability.
Submission Instructions
In order to guide the reviewing process, all authors who intend to submit a paper must first submit the title and abstract. Abstracts should describe explicit coverage of context, objectives, methods, and results and conclusions, and should not exceed 200 words.
Papers must describe original work that has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere. Papers must not exceed 10 pages for the main body and up to 2 additional pages for the references. Submissions must be written in English and formatted according to the IEEE formatting instructions. Submissions must be double-blinded in conformance with the instructions below.
Papers that exceed the length specification, are not formatted correctly, or are not properly double-blinded (see instructions below) will be desk-rejected without review.
Please note that only full paper submissions will be peer-reviewed. Abstract-only submissions will be discarded without further notice after the submission deadline.
Accepted papers may require editing for clarity prior to publication and presentation. They will appear in the IEEE Digital Library.
Instructions for the Double-Blind Review Process
The RE’20 Research track will use a double-blind reviewing process. The goal of double-blind reviewing is to ensure that the reviewers can read and review your paper without having to know who any of the authors are, and hence avoid related bias. Of course, authors are allowed and encouraged to submit papers that build on their previously published work.
In order to prepare your submission for double-blind reviewing, please follow the instructions given below.
- Omit all names and affiliations of authors from the title page, but keep sufficient space to re-introduce them in the final version should the paper be accepted.
- Do not include any acknowledgements that might disclose your identity. Leave space in your submission to add such acknowledgements when the paper has been accepted.
- Refer to your own work in the third person, as you would normally do with the work of others.
- When providing supplementary material (e.g., data repositories, source code, study protocols), do this via a website that does not disclose your identity.
- Anonymize the names of your own tools, approaches or systems, in a way that can be reversed should the paper be accepted.
- When anonymizing your paper, make sure not to compromise the technical integrity of your work. In particular, never blind references. Adhere to instruction 3 when citing previously published own work.
- Remove identification metadata from the PDF file before submission (in Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can check their presence with File Properties, or Ctrl-D). Microsoft Word users should follow the Document Properties and Personal Information section of these instructions.
Submission Link
Please submit your Research paper in PDF format via EasyChair. Select the RE’20 Research Track for your submission.
Key Dates
| Abstract Submission | February 10, 2020 |
| Full Paper Submission | February 17, 2020 |
| Paper Notification | May 12, 2020 |
| Camera Ready Due | June 22, 2020 |
All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (Standard Time).
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