The 19th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2026) is the premier venue for research on cooperative and human aspects of software engineering. Since 2008, the CHASE conference has served as a community and provided a forum to discuss research, including empirical findings, theoretical models, research methods and tools, and new ideas and visions for studying human and cooperative aspects of software engineering. CHASE seeks to bring together academic and practitioner communities interested in this area. Now in its 19th edition, CHASE 2026 will be co-located with the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

People vary widely with respect to their personality traits, emotional and cognitive style, technical knowledge, and other demographic variables, including age, gender, and cultural background. Software projects require effective communication and collaboration among many people. At the same time, emerging trends in software engineering and artificial intelligence are fundamentally redefining the concepts of cooperation, coordination, communication, and what it means to be human. The CHASE conference seeks to grow a body of knowledge on the important role of people in software development, how people cooperate and collaborate to design and develop software systems, and how these processes can be improved.

CHASE solicits high-quality research studies using any research method that is appropriate for the purpose, that seek to learn about cooperative and human aspects of software engineering. While CHASE acknowledges the important role of technology in the socio-technical discipline that software engineering is, the focus lies on the human aspects, not the technology.

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Scope
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Topics of interest are human, cooperative, and collaborative aspects of software engineering, including, but not limited to:

Social, psychological, emotional, cognitive, and human-centric aspects of software development, whether at the levels of individual, pair, group, team, organization, or community.
Social and human aspects of work from anywhere (WFX), remote, and hybrid settings in software development.
Roles, practices, conventions, and patterns of behavior, whether in technical or non-technical activities, and whether in generic or specialized domains.
Issues of leadership, (self-)organization, cooperation, culture, management, socio-technical (in)congruence, stakeholder groups.
Processes and tools (whether existing, prototypical, or simulated) to support teamwork and participation among software engineering stakeholders, whether co-located or distributed.
Role of soft skills (e.g., communication, collaboration, teamwork, organization, negotiation, conflict management) for software engineers.
Ethics, moral principles, and techniques intended to inform the development and responsible use of AI/ML-enabled systems.
Research on designing and using technologies that affect software development groups, organizations, and communities (e.g., Open Source, knowledge-sharing communities, crowdsourcing, etc).
Equity, diversity, and inclusion (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, etc., fostering inclusion, allyship, covering, privilege, organizational culture) in software engineering.
Educational and training related to human and cooperative aspects of software engineering.
Software Engineering, AI, and humans, including the effects of AI on software activities, developers’ perceptions of AI tool integration, emergence of new tools and roles due to AI, prompt engineering in Large Language Models (LLM).
Datasets that can lay a foundation for future research on human aspects of software engineering.
Replication studies of studies that fit the CHASE scope.
Meta-research studies that fit the CHASE scope.

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Important Dates
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Abstract submission: October 16th, 2025, AoE (recommended; used for bidding)
Paper submission: October 23rd, 2025, AoE
Notification: January 5th, 2026, AoE
Camera-ready submission: January 26th, 2026, AoE


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Evaluation Criteria
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Each paper submitted to CHASE will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Soundness: CHASE requires soundness. All research requires assumptions. An assumption can be reliable, reasonable, risky, or ridiculous. Soundness means to allow only reliable assumptions to remain implicit. State all reasonable assumptions. State and thoroughly discuss all risky assumptions. Be especially careful when interpreting or generalizing. CHASE will accept risky assumptions or conjectures as long as a) they are clearly marked as such, b) they are needed to enable higher relevance, and c) you convince the reviewers they are often true. Future research may show when they are true and when they are not.

Relevance: CHASE expects and values relevance, both practical and theoretical. Papers should present a clear motivation, whether that is a practical problem, a need to develop more theoretical foundations, or argue for replication of previously published studies. CHASE encourages the submission of replication papers. No matter what the contribution of a paper is, it must clearly discuss the implications of the results for software engineering research and/or practice, whether those results are empirical findings or products of theorizing.

Verifiability and Transparency: The extent to which the paper includes sufficient information to understand how it was conducted, e.g., how data was obtained, analyzed, and interpreted. We encourage authors to provide details and material that support independent verification or replication of the paper’s claimed contributions.

Presentation: CHASE is human-oriented, so we expect an easy-to-digest write-up. We recommend using a structured abstract (Background, Objective, Method, Results, Conclusion); define key terms; write clearly and concisely; consider using appropriate color schemes, symbols, boxes; provide tables and figures to reduce prose; provide cross-references; do not repeat sentences between abstract, introduction, and conclusion.


CHASE 2026 will recommend the adoption of ACM Empirical Standards for the respective research methods used. We advise both authors and reviewers to review these. CHASE welcomes other research methods not included in the ACM Empirical Standards.

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Tracks (Submission Types)
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Full papers (up to 10 pages + 2 additional pages for references): Full papers must present mature research. They must clearly state a contribution, demonstrate novelty in relation to prior work, and provide strong argumentation as to why that contribution is relevant and valid.

Extended abstracts (up to 4 pages, including tables, figures, and references): Extended abstracts capture the original spirit of CHASE’s workshop format, fostering dynamic engagement and exchange of ideas among all conference participants. They encompass research proposals, visionary concepts, multi- and interdisciplinary strategies, as well as innovative research methods, designs, and unexplored topics. These papers aim to stimulate thought-provoking discussions and collaborative exploration of new horizons in cooperative and human aspects of software engineering and can be controversial in nature. They capture the need for the community to explore new visions, ideas, and methods as CHASE research progresses and evolves over time. Extended abstracts can also present emerging and/or interim findings, thus providing a forum for introducing fresh insights and preliminary findings in the field and to receive community feedback for progressing the work.

The Program Committee may recommend papers submitted as Full papers to be accepted as Extended Abstracts. The authors may accept these recommendations and participate in CHASE to foster healthy discussion of their ideas.

Page limits mentioned above are inclusive of all figures, tables, appendices, etc.