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Call for Papers: SSEBE 2026
18th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering
July 5th-6th (tentative), 2026, Montreal, Canada, co-located with FSE 2026.
https://conf.researchr.org/home/ssbse-2026
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The 18th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering (SSBSE 2026) will be held in July 5th-6th (tentative) in Montreal, Canada, co-located with FSE’26.

Search-based Software Engineering (SBSE) is a research area that focuses on formulating software engineering problems as search problems and subsequently utilizing heuristic techniques to attain optimal solutions to these problems. A wealth of engineering challenges–from test generation, to design refactoring, to process organization–can be solved efficiently through the application of learning and optimization techniques. SBSE is a growing field situated at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and software engineering, achieving human-competitive results. The Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering is a venue dedicated to the field of SBSE research.

SSBSE 2026 will feature six tracks:

- Research Papers
- Journal First
- NIER - New Ideas and Emerging Results
- RENE - Replications and Negative Results
- Challenge Track
- Tutorials

*** RESEARCH PAPERS ***

IMPORTANT DATES (AoE)

- Submission Deadline: March 10, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: April 10, 2026
- Camera-Ready Deadline: April 17, 2026

We invite the submission of high-quality papers describing novel and original works in all areas of SBSE including, but not limited to, applications of SBSE to novel problems, theoretical analyses of search algorithms for software engineering, rigorous empirical evaluations of SBSE techniques, and reports of industrial experiences. SSBSE welcomes applications of search-based techniques throughout the software engineering lifecycle. This year, we aim to spotlight the transformative role of AI and optimization techniques in software engineering, while continuing to welcome innovative contributions across all areas of SBSE.

Topics of interest of SSBSE 2026 include but are not limited to:

- Novel applications of SBSE, especially in emerging domains
- Integrations of SBSE with AI, machine learning, large language models, Agentic AI, and cutting-edge technologies
- Theoretical advances in search algorithms for software engineering
- Rigorous empirical evaluations with reproducible results
- Industrial experiences and real-world deployments

Research papers must be of up to 15 pages, including all text, figures, references, and appendices.

AWARDS AND JOURNAL INVITATIONS

The best full-length papers will be recognized with the Paper Award.

Following the conference, the authors of the best manuscripts will be invited to extend their papers into full journal papers in a special issue. More information will be announced soon.

PC chairs: Mijung Kim (UNIST, South Korea), and Wesley K.G. Assunção (North Carolina State University, USA)

Track webpage: (https://conf.researchr.org/track/ssbse-2026/ssbse-2026-research-papers)

*** Hot Off the Press ***

The Hot Off the Press (HOP) track offers authors of recent papers the opportunity to present their work to the SSBSE community and have a 2-page abstract to appear within the proceedings of SSBSE. We invite researchers to submit summaries of their own recently published work in top-tier journals and conferences. Submissions will be evaluated and selected according to their scientific quality and relevance to the SSBSE community.

Acceptance Criteria:

- The HOP paper must be of significant interest to the SSBSE community.
- The HOP paper must have appeared in a well-respected journal or conference proceeding. For journal publications, it suffices that the paper is finally accepted and accessible online (papers that have not yet appeared on the publisher’s page need to provide the authors’ copy along with the proof of acceptance).
- The HOP paper must not have been published in its final form earlier than 2025.
- The core of the paper must not have been presented at an SSBSE symposium before.

IMPORTANT DATES (AoE)

- Submission Deadline: March 20, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: March 30, 2026

Track webpage: (https://conf.researchr.org/track/ssbse-2026/ssbse-2026-hot-off-the-press-track)

*** NIER - New Ideas and Emerging Results ***

The New Ideas and Emerging Results Track is a forum to present and get feedback on forward-looking, innovative ideas in the Search-Based Software Engineering field. This forum provides an opportunity for researchers to present and gather feedback on groundbreaking results, tools under development, experience reports, or position papers. The track provides an opportunity for researchers to introduce ideas that challenge the status-quo in the SBSE community, start a discussion, and receive feedback on new research ideas or results in an early stage of investigation. Early career researchers and Ph.D. students are particularly encouraged to present inspiring research efforts that push the boundaries of SBSE. However, researchers at all levels are invited to submit.

NIER submissions should not exceed 6 pages in length and should be prepared for double-anonymous review following the symposium's general instructions.

IMPORTANT DATES (AoE)

- Submission Deadline: March 20, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: April 15, 2026
- Camera-Ready Deadline: April 20, 2026

Track webpage: (https://conf.researchr.org/track/ssbse-2026/ssbse-2026-rene-nier)

*** RENE - Replications and Negative Results ***

The Replications and Negative Results Track provides a venue for researchers to submit replications of all types of empirical studies related to Search-Based Software Engineering, and original works reporting negative results on any of the topics of interest for the research track of the SSBSE conference.

Replications can either strengthen the results of the original study by increasing external validity with additional data or provide new insights into the variables that may impact the results. Papers can report replications of the author’s own work or another researcher’s work. If the experiments have been replicated and reproduced either partially or fully, the replication track is the right venue to submit your findings.

Negative results papers are also welcome as we believe they are important contributions to scientific knowledge because they allow us to constantly evaluate our hypothesis space and understanding of the current approaches.

RENE submissions can be either full papers (15 pages in length, including all text, figures, appendices and references) or short papers (6 pages in length, including everything). Full papers are expected to describe a fully or partially replicated study or an original study reporting negative results. Short papers can report on work in progress or preliminary experimental designs with the intention of running the full study in the near future. All submissions should be prepared for double-anonymous review following the symposium’s general instructions.

IMPORTANT DATES (AoE)

- Submission Deadline: March 20, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: April 15, 2026
- Camera-Ready Deadline: April 20, 2026

Track webpage: (https://conf.researchr.org/track/ssbse-2026/ssbse-2026-rene-nier)

*** SSBSE CHALLENGE TRACK ***

The SSBSE Challenge Track is an exciting opportunity for SBSE researchers to apply tools, techniques, and algorithms to real-world software. Participants can use their expertise to carry out analyses on open source software projects or to directly improve the infrastructure powering research experiments. The SSBSE challenge details are described in the track website. The principal criteria are to produce interesting results, apply your expertise to challenge the state of the art, and inspire future SBSE research.

A challenge-track participant should:

- Perform original SBSE research using or enhancing the challenge programs and/or their artefacts.
- Report the findings in a six-page paper using the regular symposium format. Note that these findings must not have been previously published in any peer-reviewed venue.
- Submit the challenge-track report by the deadline.
- Present the findings at SSBSE 2026, if the submission is accepted.

All accepted submissions will compete for a cash prize. The winners will be selected by the co-chairs, based on the reviews of the submitted papers. The winners will be announced at SSBSE 2026.

IMPORTANT DATES (AoE)

- Submission Deadline: April 7, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: April 30, 2026
- Camera-Ready Deadline: May 7, 2026

Track webpage: https://conf.researchr.org/track/ssbse-2026/ssbse-2026-ssbse-challenge

FORMAT AND SUBMISSION

Submissions must be original and not under consideration elsewhere. All papers will undergo a rigorous double-anonymous peer review process. To ensure anonymity:

- Omit author names and affiliations from the manuscript.
- Write self-citations in the third person (e.g., “the work of XYZ” rather than “our previous work”).
- Avoid URLs or references that reveal author identities.

Authors may submit supplementary materials (e.g., datasets or experimental results) as anonymized files. While supplementary materials are optional, they can enhance the reproducibility and impact of your work.

Submissions must follow Springer’s LNCS format (see https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines) and can be made via https://ssbse2026.hotcrp.com. Non-compliant submissions will be desk-rejected.

If a paper is accepted, at least one author is expected to attend the symposium and present the paper.

Sincerely,
Ali Ouni (General Chair)
Mijung Kim (Program Co-Chair)
Wesley K.G. Assunção (Program Co-Chair)