*** First Call for Research Papers (2nd Round) ***

 

International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines,

and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026)

 

29 September - 2 October 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina

Limassol, Cyprus

 

https://conf.researchr.org/home/variability-2026

 

 

The International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and

Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026) invites high-quality contributions from researchers and

practitioners in software engineering, systems engineering, and related disciplines

focussing on a broad spectrum of methods, concepts, and tools for variability.

VARIABILITY aims to be the premier forum for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and

results in all aspects of software and systems variability management, reuse, software

configuration, and customization.

 

As software and systems become increasingly configurable, reusable, and adaptable,

managing their variability across all lifecycle phases is more critical—and more challenging

—than ever. VARIABILITY 2026 seeks to bring together the diverse communities that

address these challenges from theoretical, technical, and practical perspectives.

 

VARIABILITY results from a merge of three prominent conferences focussing on software

and systems variability, configuration and reuse: SPLC (the International Systems and

Software Product Line Conference, 29 successful editions), VaMoS (the International

Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 19 successful

editions), and ICSR (the International Conference on Systems and Software Reuse, 22

successful editions).

 

VARIABILITY is by design open as a conference. It welcomes new fields of variability-

intensive research, such as artificial intelligence, hybrid software-hardware systems, etc.

For this first edition of VARIABILITY, we strive to continue the success of the predecessor

conferences ICSR, SPLC, and VaMoS by welcoming high-quality submissions for the

research track in numerous closely related areas, such as systems and software product

lines, systems and software reuse, configurable systems and software, product

configuration, and systems and software variability. We will award the best research paper

and the best artifact paper.

 

 

Topics of Interest

 

We invite contributions on variability management, reuse, and configuration across all

phases of the software and systems lifecycle. The topics of interest include, but are not

limited to:

 

Requirements & Domain Engineering

• Domain analysis and variability modeling

• Decision modeling and support

• Customization and personalization specification

• Requirements variability and traceability

 

Architecture & Design

• Variability-aware software architectures

• Architecture-centric product line engineering

• Model-driven engineering (MDE)

• Multi-product lines, program families, product lines of product lines, software

ecosystems

 

Implementation & Code Generation

• Generative programming and code synthesis

• Modularization techniques for reusable code

• Programming languages and frameworks for variability

• Open-source strategies for software reuse

 

Testing, Verification & Quality Assurance

• Testing and analysis of configurable systems

• Safety and security in variable systems

• Formal Methods for Software Product Lines

• Non-functional properties: quality-aware analysis, quality-driven configuration

• Reuse in testing, verification, and quality assurance

 

Evolution, Maintenance & Operation

• Refactoring and restructuring of configurable systems

• Reverse engineering, variability mining, and refactoring

• Runtime variability and dynamic (software) product lines

• Maintenance strategies for large-scale reused systems

• Variability in DevOps and CI/CD pipelines

 

AI and Data-Driven Methods

• Machine learning for variability management

• AI-assisted product configuration

• Data and repository mining from product lines and configuration histories

• Recommendation systems for reuse and customization

 

 

Publication of Proceedings

 

Accepted papers will be published in the VARIABILITY 2026 proceedings by Springer in the

LNCS series.

 

 

Submission Guidelines

 

Paper Types

We invite the following types of submissions:

 

• Full Papers (up to 18 pages excluding references): Research papers must present

original, unpublished work with validated results through empirical evaluation, formal

analysis, or implementation-based experiments. Submissions must clearly articulate the

problem, its relevance, the proposed contribution, and validation results.

 

• Short Papers (6 - 8 pages excluding references): Short papers present early-stage

research, novel ideas, or conceptual proposals that are not yet fully developed or

validated but offer promising directions. These papers should articulate the vision,

motivation, and potential impact.

 

Formatting

Papers must use the Springer LNCS template according to:

https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

 

Springer provides author guidelines that should be consulted for further details:

https://resource-preview-cms.springernature.com/springer-cms/rest/v1/content/19242230/data/v17

 

Submission Link

Submissions should be made via Easy Chair, selecting the research track:

https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=variability2026

 

 

Paper Originality, Double-Anonymous Policy, Reviewing

All papers must be original and not under review elsewhere. Submissions will be double-

anonymous and reviewed by at least three experts. Submissions will be evaluated based

on their novelty, relevance, rigor, transparency, and presentation. Authors of submissions

to the first deadline might be invited to submit a revision of their papers to the second

deadline, which will be reviewed as a revision.

 

Revisions

Research-track papers can be submitted to the first or second cycle. In the first cycle,

papers can receive the following decisions: accept, revision, or reject. Revision means that

the reviewers believe that the paper has potential, but that its quality or contribution is not

yet ready for publication. Such papers are offered lightweight shepherding by a community

member, who is not necessarily a PC member or reviewer. Revised papers should be

submitted to the second cycle together with a response letter, explaining how the reviewer

comments were addressed. They are then reviewed by the same PC members. Papers

rejected in the first cycle can be resubmitted in the second cycle, but need to contain an

appendix “Changes to First-Cycle Submission” at the end of the PDF (after references,

regardless of the page limit) that lists the major changes in bullet-point format.

 

 

Best Paper Awards

 

Springer will sponsor the awards for bet papers with an overall amount of €1000.

 

 

Journal Special Issue

 

Selected accepted papers will be invited to submit extended versions with at least 30%

additional and original material, to be published in a special issue in a reputable Software

Engineering journal (currently under negotiation).

 

 

Important Dates (AoE)

 

• Paper Submission Deadline (2nd Round): 2 April 2026

• Notification of Acceptance (2nd Round): 1 June 2026

• Camera-Ready Deadline: 15 July 2025

• Author Registration: 15 July 2025

 

 

Organisation

 

General Chairs

• George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

• Gilles Perrouin, FNRS & University of Namur, Belgium

 

Research Track Chairs

• Thorsten Berger, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

• Ina Schaefer, KIT, Germany

 

Industry Track Chairs

• Shaukat Ali, Simula Research Lab and Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

• Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany

 

Journal First Track Chairs

• Mathieu Acher, University Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, France

• Xhevahire Tërnava, LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France

 

Doctoral Symposium Track Chairs

• Rick Rabiser, LIT CPS, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

• Iris Reinhartz-Berger, University of Haifa, Israel

 

Demos and Tools Track Chairs

• Sandra Greiner, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

• Leopoldo Teixeira, Federal University of Pernambuco

 

Projects Showcase Chairs

• Daniel Struber, Chalmers, University of Gothenburg, Radbound University, Sweden

• Dalila Tamzalit, Nantes Université, France

 

Hall of Fame Chairs

• Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany

• Goetz Botterweck, Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick, Ireland

• Natsuko Noda, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

 

Workshops Chairs

• Lidia Fuentes, Universidad de Malaga, Spain

• Malte Lochau, University of Siegen, Germany

 

Tutorials Chairs

• Loek Cleophas, Eindhoven University of Technology and Stellenbosch University, The Netherlands

• Mahsa Varshosaz, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Proceedings Chair

• Sophie Fortz, King's College London, UK

 

Publicity Chairs

• Wesley Assunção, North Carolina State University, USA

• Kentaro Yoshimura, Hitachi Ltd, Japan

 

Local Organiser and Finance Chair

• George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus