For JSS's full CfP including information on Special Issues, Industry, Trends, and Journal First tracks please continue to read for further details.

The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of software engineering. All articles should provide evidence to support their claims, e.g. through empirical studies, simulation, formal proofs or other types of validation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Methods and tools for software requirements, design, architecture, verification and validation, testing, maintenance and evolution
    Agile, model-driven, service-oriented, open source and global software development
    Human/social aspects in software engineering and developer experience
    Artificial Intelligence, data analytics and big data applied in software engineering
    Metrics and evaluation of software development resources
    DevOps, continuous integration, build and test automation
    Software Engineering education
    Ethical/societal aspects of Software Engineering
    Software Engineering for AI systems
    Software Engineering for Sustainability
    Methods and tools for empirical software engineering research

The journal welcomes reports of practical experience for all of these topics, as well as replication studies and studies with negative results. The journal appreciates the submission of systematic literature reviews, mapping studies and meta-analyses. However, these should report interesting and important results, rather than merely providing statistics on publication year, venue etc.

JSS supports Open Science and reproducible research. Therefore, authors are encouraged to make Open Science material available at the time of submission and after acceptance of their manuscript, e.g., by submitting artifacts related to a study to an archived open repository (such as arXiv.org, zenodo.org, Mendeley, etc.). Also, authors are encouraged to explicitly reference Open Science material in their manuscript (e.g., via a DOI from the open repository). If authors are not able to disclose any material (for example, industrial data subject to non-disclosure agreements), we encourage authors to explicitly acknowledge this by including a short statement in their manuscript. Depending on the type of research presented in a manuscript, Open Science material could include study protocols, (anonymized) raw or analyzed data, data analysis scripts, source code, customized tools and infrastructures, experimental material, codebooks, etc. If authors agree to participate in the JSS Open Science Initiative, after the acceptance of a manuscript, they will be invited to submit a link to Open Science material for review by the JSS Open Science Board. After a successful review (which does not impact the acceptance of the manuscript) considering availability and usability of the material, the publisher will add a statement to the final version of the manuscript acknowledging that the Open Science package was validated by the JSS Open Science Board.

In addition to regular papers, JSS features two special tracks (In Practice, New Ideas and Trends Papers), as well as special issues.

In Practice is exclusively focused on work that increases knowledge transfer from industry to research. It accepts: (1) Applied Research Reports where we invite submissions that report results (positive or negative) concerning the experience of applying/evaluating systems and software technologies (methods, techniques and tools) in real industrial settings. These comprise empirical studies conducted in industry (e.g., action research, case studies) or experience reports that may help understanding situations in which technologies really work and their impact. Submissions should include information on the industrial setting, provide motivation, explain the events leading to the outcomes, including the challenges faced, summarize the outcomes, and conclude with lessons learned, take-away messages, and practical advice based on the described experience. Contributing authors from industry are encouraged but not mandatory. (2) Practitioner Insights where we invite experience reports showing what actually happens in practical settings, illustrating the challenges (and pain) that practitioners face, and presenting lessons learned. Problem descriptions with significant details on the context, underlying causes and symptoms, and technical and organizational impact are also welcome. Practitioner insights papers may also comprise invited opinionated views on the evolution of chosen topic areas in practice. In contrast to applied research reports, practitioner insights are limited to four pages and the first author must be from industry. Finally, submissions to this track should be within scope of the journal's above topics of interest and they will be evaluated through industry-appropriate criteria for their merit in reporting useful industrial experience rather than in terms of academic novelty of research results.

New Ideas and Trends Papers

New ideas, especially those related to new research trends, emerge quickly. To accommodate timely dissemination thereof, JSS introduces the New Ideas and Trends Paper (NITP). NITPs should focus on the systems/software engineering aspects of new emerging areas, including: the internet of things, big data, cloud computing, software ecosystems, cyber-physical systems, green/sustainable systems, continuous software engineering, crowdsourcing, and the like. We distinguish two types of NITPs:

    A short paper that discusses a single contribution to a specific new trend or a new idea.
    A long paper that provides a survey of a specific trend, as well as a (possibly speculative) outline of a solution.

NITPs are not required to be fully validated, but preliminary results that endorse the merit of the proposed ideas are welcomed.

We anticipate revisiting specific new trends periodically, for instance through reflection or progress reports.

New Ideas and Trend Papers warrant speedy publication.

Special Issue proposals

To submit a proposal for a special issue please submit your proposal here to Special Issues Editors Prof. Raffaela Mirandola and Prof. Laurence Duchien. Please visit the special issue guidelines page first to review the proposal guidelines and to download the proposal template required when submitting a proposal.

Journal First Initiative

Authors of JSS accepted papers have the opportunity to present their work in those conferences that offer a Journal First track. Using this track, researchers may take the best from two worlds: ensuring high quality in the JSS publication (thorough, multi-phase review process of a long manuscript), while getting feedback from a community of experts and fostering possible collaborations during a scientific event.

Details may vary from conference to conference, but generally speaking, JSS papers to be presented in a Journal First track must report completely new research results or present novel contributions that significantly extend previous work. The ultimate decision to include a paper in the conference program is up to the conference chairs, not JSS. A JSS paper may be presented only once through a Journal First track.

As of today, the list of conferences with which JSS is collaborating, or has collaborated, through a Journal First track, is: ASE, ICSME, SANER, RE, ESEM, PROFES, and APSEC.

Special Issue on Euromicro SEAA 2025
截稿日期: 2025-12-10

Guest editors:

Prof. Darja Šmite, 
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden

Prof. Davide Taibi,
University of Oulu, Finland

Special issue information:

As the world becomes increasingly data-driven, software systems being developed today face new challenges and opportunities. Every phase of the software lifecycle –from defining requirements and making design decisions to implementation, quality assurance, deployment, operation, and decommissioning software systems— is changing by the influence of data. This transformation necessitates the development of new technologies to host, process, and leverage the data gathered about and from the systems. The recent emergence of generative AI tools adds another layer of complexity, prompting critical questions about how these advancements are redefining the processes of developing software.

This special issue will focus on collecting cutting-edge research results in the area of software engineering. The topics relevant to this special issue include, but are not restricted to, the following (with a focus on data-driven systems):

    AI-enabled software development and operations
    Cloud-native data-driven systems
    DevOps for data-driven systems
    Data-driven engineering and operations of cyber-physical systems
    Mining open datasets
    Model-driven engineering and modelling languages for data-driven systems
    Software management and human factors for data-driven systems
    Software processes for data-driven systems
    Software quality and technical debt in data-driven systems

Special Issue on Agile Reloaded: The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?
截稿日期: 2025-12-15

Guest editors:

    Yves Wautelet, KULeuven, Belgium
    Fabiano Dalpiaz, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
    Geert Poels, Ghent University, Belgium

Guest Editors Biographies

Yves Wautelet is associate professor at KU Leuven (Campus Brussel) as well as guest professor at UCLouvain and Université de Namur. He has also formerly been an IT project manager and a Postdoctoral Researcher at UCLouvain. He completed a PhD thesis focusing on project and risk management issues in large enterprise software developments in 2008. His industrial experience includes business modeling, requirements engineering, and database design in software projects for Carsid, Caterpillar, Communauté française de Belgique, industrial logistic partners and European Schoolnet. Yves published in more than 10 Q1/Q2 scientific journals for which he also acts as ad-hoc reviewer. Yves is also Program Commitee member of A-ranked scientific conferences like ESEM, ER or RE and has been Program Chair of RCIS 2019 in Brussels.

Fabiano Dalpiaz is a professor of software production in the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He is principal investigator in the department's Requirements Engineering lab. In his research, Fabiano blends artificial intelligence with information visualization in order to increase the quality of the requirements engineering process and artifacts, with the ultimate aim of delivering higher-quality software. His research is often validated in-vivo through collaborations with the software industry. He acted as program co-chair for various conferences including RE 2023, REFSQ 2021, and RCIS 2020. He is editor in chief of the Requirements Engineering Journal, associate editor of the Business & Information Systems Engineering Journal, and Steering Committee Chair of REFSQ. He often serves on the program committee of conferences such as RE, CAiSE, REFSQ, and ICSE.

Geert Poels is a professor of business informatics at Ghent University, Belgium. He teaches intermediate and advanced courses on Information Systems, IT Management, Enterprise Architecture and Service Design. He also teaches Research Methodology in the executive MSc in Enterprise Architecture of the innocom institute. He is a professor in the Cost and Value Analytics, Modeling and Optimization (CVAMO) core lab of FlandersMake, which is a strategic research center for the manufacturing industry of the Flanders region in Belgium. His research focuses on conceptual modeling, enterprise architecture, digital transformation, privacy and requirements analysis. He was program chair of CAiSE 2022 and guest editor of the CAiSE 2022 ‘best selected papers’ special issue published in Information Systems.

Special issue information:

Abstract: In 2015, a provocative keynote given by Dave Thomas, one of the co-authors of the agile manifesto, at the YOW! Developer Conference, declared “Agile is Dead (Long Live Agility)” A decade later, is Agile still a driving force in modern software development, or has it become an illusion, an outdated philosophy struggling to remain relevant? Today, practitioners face a choice: do we take the Blue Pill and remain in a comfortable, structured version of Agile, designed to fit within corporate bureaucracy? Or do we take the Red Pill, questioning whether Agile can be redefined, reclaimed, or even revolutionized to meet the demands of modern software production and engineering?

Agile was once a beacon of adaptability and continuous improvement, a development paradigm centered on delivering value through small, iterative steps. Yet, over time, it has been adopted in organizations of all sizes in ways that often diverge from its original intent. Instead of empowering teams to build better software through collaboration and responsiveness, Agile has increasingly been institutionalized into certifications, frameworks, and rigid processes. Large-scale Agile methods—such as SAFe, LeSS, and Disciplined Agile—claim to address scalability but often do so by introducing layers of governance that undermine agility itself. Have these methods become the Architect of Agile, constructing a world where compliance with predefined structures matters more than actual value delivery? Worse yet, has Agile become its own Agent Smith—a system so obsessed with perpetuating itself that it multiplies into countless versions, each claiming to be “true Agile” while moving further away from its core principles?

Meanwhile, some Neo innovators seek to break free from process-driven Agile and rediscover its core purpose. They challenge the status quo by embracing hyper-agility, AI-assisted development, No-Code/Low-Code platforms, and hybrid approaches—not as trends, but as tools to enhance actual software delivery and responsiveness to change. Could Agile Reloaded be a movement that reclaims agility from corporate constraints, shifting the focus back to delivering working software and real value—fostering a space, like Zion, where agility can truly thrive, free from imposed structures? Or has Agile run its course, giving way to new development philosophies better suited for today’s technological and business landscape?

This special issue seeks to explore the scientific foundations, empirical evidence, and critical debates surrounding Agile’s future. Morpheus could offer Neo the hard truth only, so this special issue does not promise any easy answers. It is nevertheless aimed to offer an opportunity to explore where Agile truly stands today, what agility still means, and what the future holds for software development. We invite contributions that investigate whether Agile is truly evolving—or whether we are merely rebooting the same system under a different name.

Topics for the Special Issue

We welcome high-quality research that explores Agile’s evolution from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Agile in the Age of Digital Transformation

    The rise (or fall) of Agile in data-driven, AI-driven, cloud-native, and DevOps environments
    Agile’s role in hyper-automation, low-code/no-code (LCNC), boilerplate applications, and AI-assisted development
    Software ecosystems and Agile methods: Are we still Agile in platform-based development?
    Agile enterprises: Is agile software development (still) aligned with agile enterprises?
    What is Agile in reality? Investigating Agile as a mindset, philosophy, development paradigm, or method: conceptual clarity and implications for practice and research

Agile vs. Large-Scale Frameworks: The Illusion of Agility?

    Have SAFe, LeSS, and Disciplined Agile truly solved the scaling problem—or have they become the new Architect?
    The paradox of Agile at scale: Empirical evidence on effectiveness, rigidity, and unintended consequences
    Agile methods in large enterprises: value-driven adaptation or process-driven illusion?

Agile and Requirements Engineering: Escaping the Illusion of Control?

    User stories, test-driven development (TDD), and behavior-driven development (BDD): Are they still freeing teams to adapt, or have they become predefined scripts in a controlled Agile simulation?
    Model-driven development (MDD) in Agile: Can abstraction and automation break us free from the illusion of agility, or do they risk creating yet another rigid system?
    Agile requirements engineering: Balancing flexibility with traceability and compliance—can Agile remain adaptable while still addressing real-world constraints?
    Agile and quality requirements: Have agile methods forgotten about quality?
    The evolution of backlogs, epics, and stories: Have these tools empowered developers to navigate complexity, or have they become the rules of the system that define what is and isn’t real agility?

The Red Pill: Agile Reclaimed?

    Case studies and experiments showcasing innovative, non-traditional adaptations of Agile
    Hyper-agile, AI-powered Agile, and new ways of working: can agility be reinvented?
    Agile methods beyond software development: applicability in non-software domains (e.g., business model design, enterprise engineering)

The Blue Pill: Agile as the New Waterfall?

    The commodification of Agile: Are certification programs and frameworks diluting its original intent?
    Agile theater: organizations claiming agility while following rigid governance structures
    Empirical studies on Agile failures and organizational resistance to Agile transformations

Hybrid and Post-Agile Approaches

    Can Agile principles merge with structured methods, or are they fundamentally incompatible?
    Agile vs. traditional project management: evidence-based perspectives
    New software development paradigms: What comes after Agile?

Agile and Human Factors

    The psychological and cognitive load of Agile development: empowering teams or causing burnout?
    Agile leadership and self-organizing teams: still viable in modern organizations?
    Socio-technical perspectives on Agile and its impact on software teams

Manuscript submission information:

Submissions should be prepared according to the Guide for Authors Guide for Authors - Journal of Systems and Software. All manuscripts should be submitted via the Elsevier Editorial System at Submission site for Journal of Systems and Software. During submission, please select the article type "VSI: Agile Reloaded" to ensure proper identification for the special issue. 

Planned Schedule

Please note that some dates are approximate and could be faster, depending on the reviewers and article.

Submission deadline: December 15, 2025
Reviews round 1: November 30, 2025
Deadline resubmission: January 31, 2026 (approximate)
Reviews round 2: February 28, 2026 (approximate)
Deadline resubmission: March 20, 2026 (approximate)
Acceptance notification: April 7, 2026 (approximate)
Publication date: TBD

Special Issue on Impactful Software Architecture
截稿日期: 2026-01-31

The European Conference on Software Architecture (ECSA) reaches its 19th edition in 2025, marking nearly two decades of fostering innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in software architecture. ECSA has consistently served as a premier platform for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss cutting-edge innovations, trends, experiences, and concerns for software architecture. From its inception to the present day, ECSA has witnessed notable transformations, expansions, and paradigm shifts, continually adapting to the evolving landscape of software architecture.

Guest editors:

Nour Ali, Reader
Brunel University London, UK

Vasilios Andrikopoulos, Associate Professor
University of Groningen, the Netherlands

Cesare Pautasso, Full Professor
University of Lugano, Switzerland

Jacopo Soldani, Associate Professor
University of Pisa, Italy

Special issue information:

This special issue of the Journal of Systems and Software (JSS) invites authors from ECSA 2025, as well as the broader software architecture community, to submit original research papers or significantly extended versions of their conference presentations. The special issue focuses on “impactful software architecture". Software architecture plays a pivotal role in designing robust, scalable, and maintainable systems, influencing both technical and business outcomes. This special issue aims at exploring the principles, practices, and emerging trends that drive architectural decisions, highlighting their tangible impact on system performance, collaboration, and long-term sustainability. We seek contributions that examine how architectural strategies – whether well-established or cutting-edge – shape real-world applications across diverse domains, from traditional enterprise systems to rapidly evolving fields such as AI-driven and autonomous applications. Through this special issue, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of the transformative role of software architecture in addressing contemporary challenges and advancing the state of the art.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Foundational principles of software architecture
    Relationship between requirements engineering and software architecture
    Quality attributes and software architectures
    Architecture practices for secure, explainable, and trustworthy software
    Architecture design and analysis
    Architecture description languages and meta-models
    Architecture verification and validation
    Management of architectural knowledge, decisions, and rationale
    Architecture patterns, styles, and tactics
    Architecture viewpoints and views
    Architecture conformance
    Software architecture virtualization and visualization
    Architecture-centric process models and frameworks
    Software architecture and agile, incremental, iterative, and continuous development
    Component-based models and deployment, middleware, and DevOps
    Software architecture and system architecture
    Software tools, languages, and environments for architecture-centric software engineering
    Ethics, cultural, economic, business, social, human, and managerial aspects of software architecture
    Architecture and technical debt
    Architecting for sustainable and environment-friendly systems
    Applying AI and LLMs in software architecture and architecting for AI and LLMintensive systems.
    Software architecture education
    Cross-disciplinary approaches to software architecture
    Architectures for reconfigurable and self-adaptive systems
    Architectural concerns of autonomic systems
    Software architecture applied to new and emerging areas, such as the cloud/edge, big data, blockchain, cyber-physical systems, IoT, autonomous systems, systems-ofsystems, energy-aware software, quantum computing, AI-enabled systems
    Empirical studies and datasets in software architecture
    Diversity, equity, and inclusion in activities related to software architecture

In line with JSS policies, submissions consisting of surveys, literature reviews, or mapping studies on the aforementioned or related topics will not be considered for this special issue and will be desk-rejected.