*** Last Call for Doctoral Symposium Papers ***

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

VARIABILITY is a new conference that has been merged 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,

ranked as a top conference), 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).

The Doctoral Symposium of VARIABILITY 2026 aims to provide a supportive environment

that enables doctoral students to get constructive feedback on their research. Students

will discuss their work with experienced community members and other students. The

event is open to any PhD student whose research topic concerns software variability,

software and systems reuse, product lines, and configuration. This includes PhD students

at early stages of their research (after setting up a research program, but before having

results).  Accordingly, we will have two submission categories:

• Late – late-stage PhD students, having at least 6 months of work after the conference

and before their expected completion; and

• Early – early-stage PhD students, with at least 6 months of work already performed

prior to the submission date.

Submissions/Publishing

Requirements

To participate, students should prepare a research plan answering the following questions:

• The research problem being addressed and its importance

• The research methodology and techniques being applied

• The solution being proposed, its novelty and validity

• The relation of the work with the state-of-the-art

• Preliminary results and their impact (for the ‘late’ category)

The research plan aims to provide clear material that can be used as a basis for guidance

and discussion. It is strongly recommended that students discuss the research plan with

their supervisors. The following structure is recommended:

• Front matter: Title, your name, email address, abstract

• Introduction and Motivation: Introduction, description of the problem tackled and its

importance; what the literature says about this problem and where existing work fails; how

you plan to tackle this problem; what results you envision; how you plan to validate your

solution.

• Research Questions: Clearly state the research questions you plan to address and any

assumptions you make.

• Research Methodology and Approach: The research methodology you plan to use (e.g.,

design science, action research), including the techniques you plan to use (e.g.,

formalisation, algorithm specification, case studies). In line with your research

methodology, describe your research approach: what novel methods and/or technology

you are going to build, how you are going to do that, including aspects such as data

collection, software prototyping and evaluation. Discuss any threats to validity you can

envision and expect to address (to the extent possible).

• Preliminary Results (for the ‘late’ category): Overview of the results you achieved so far.

Provide an example to explain how the solution obtained so far works. This is only

applicable to the ‘late’ category.

• Work plan: Both categories of submissions should consider an overall work plan for the

whole thesis. Submissions for the ‘late’ category can mention which parts of the work plan

they have reached so far. Both categories of submissions should consider the schedule for

the next 12 months.

Submission Format

VARIABILITY DS papers will be published in the second volume of the VARIABILITY

conference proceedings published by Springer (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

Submissions should be in the Springer format (please see the information about the format

in the call for the research track). All submissions must be in English, in PDF format, and

neither contain proprietary or confidential material. The page limits for doctoral

symposium submissions are as follows:

• Early category: 6 pages (+2 pages for references only)

• Late category: 8 pages (+2 pages for references only)

Submissions should be sent as a single file via Easychair track Doctoral Symposium:

https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=variability2026 (please select ‘VARIABILITY

2026 – Doctoral Symposium Track’).

Evaluation

At least two reviewers will evaluate each submission according to the research’s relevance,

originality and feasibility. VARIABILITY DS papers will be published in the second volume of

the VARIABILITY conference proceedings published by Springer. The PhD student of the

accepted submission must register and attend VARIABILITY 2026 so that the submission

can be published.

Format of the Symposium

The symposium will be held in conjunction with VARIABILITY 2026. In addition to

presentations by PhD students and discussions, the doctoral symposium will feature a

keynote/panel and ask-me-anything sessions with experienced researchers. All students

are expected to attend every symposium session.

Important Dates (AoE)

• Submission of Papers: 6 June 2026

• Notification of Acceptance: 6 July 2026

• Camera-Ready Submission: 15 July 2026

• Author Registration: 15 July 2026

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