CFP: SLE 2021 - 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering

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14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2021)
October 17-19, 2021
Chicago, Illinois


https://conf.researchr.org/home/sle-2021
http://www.sleconf.org/2021
Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/sleconf
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We are pleased to invite you to submit papers to the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2021), held in conjunction with SPLASH, GPCE and SAS 2021. Based on the future developments the conference will be hosted in Chicago, Illinois, United States on October 17-19, 2021 or will be held as a virtual event.

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Scope
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The ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE) is devoted to the principles of software languages: their design, their implementation, and their evolution.

With the ubiquity of computers, software has become the dominating intellectual asset of our time. In turn, this software depends on software languages, namely the languages it is written in, the languages used to describe its environment, and the languages driving its development process. Given that everything depends on software and that software depends on software languages, it seems fair to say that for many years to come, everything will depend on software languages.

Software language engineering (SLE) is the discipline of engineering languages and their tools required for the creation of software. It abstracts from the differences between programming languages, modelling languages, and other software languages, and emphasizes the engineering facet of the creation of such languages, that is, the establishment of the scientific methods and practices that enable the best results. While SLE is certainly driven by its metacircular character (software languages are engineered using software languages), SLE is not self-satisfying: its scope extends to the engineering of languages for all and everything.

Like its predecessors, the 14th edition of the SLE conference, SLE 2021, will bring together researchers from different areas united by their common interest in the creation, capture, and tooling of software languages. It overlaps with traditional conferences on the design and implementation of programming languages, model-driven engineering, and compiler construction, and emphasizes the fusion of their communities. To foster the latter, SLE traditionally fills a two-day program with a single track, with the only temporal overlap occurring between co-located events.

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Topics of Interest
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SLE 2021 solicits high-quality contributions in areas ranging from theoretical and conceptual contributions, to tools, techniques, and frameworks in the domain of software language engineering. Broadly speaking, SLE covers software language engineering rather than engineering a specific software language. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:


* Software Language Design and Implementation
      - Approaches to and methods for language design
      - Static semantics (e.g., design rules, well-formedness constraints)
      - Techniques for specifying behavioral / executable semantics
      - Generative approaches (incl. code synthesis, compilation)
      - Meta-languages, meta-tools, language workbenches

* Software Language Validation
      - Verification and formal methods for languages
      - Testing techniques for languages
      - Simulation techniques for languages

* Software Language Integration and Composition
      - Coordination of heterogeneous languages and tools
      - Mappings between languages (incl. transformation languages)
      - Traceability between languages
      - Deployment of languages to different platforms

* Software Language Maintenance
      - Software language reuse
      - Language evolution
      - Language families and variability

* Domain-specific approaches for any aspects of SLE (design, implementation, validation, maintenance)

* Empirical evaluation and experience reports of language engineering tools
      - User studies evaluating usability
      - Performance benchmarks
      - Industrial applications

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Important Dates
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All dates are Anywhere on Earth.

* Mon 5 Jul 2021 - Abstract Submissions
* Fri 9 Jul 2021 - Paper Submissions
* Wed 1 Sep 2021 - Review Notification
* Wed-Fri 1-3 Sep 2021 - Author Response Period
* Mon 13 Sep 2021 - Notification
* Wed 15 Sept 2021 - Artifact Submissions
* Tue 28 Sep 2021 - Artifact Kick-the-tires Author Response
* Tue 12 Oct 2021 - Artifact Notification
* Sun-Tue 17-19 Oct 2021 - SLE Conference

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Types of Submissions
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SLE 2021 solicits three types of papers:

* Research papers
These are "traditional" papers detailing research contributions to SLE. These papers have a limit of 12 pages, and may optionally include 8 further pages of bibliography/appendices

* Tool papers
These are papers which focus on the tooling aspects which are often forgotten or neglected in research papers. A good tool paper focuses on practical insights that are likely to be useful to other implementers or users in the future. Any of the SLE topics of interest are appropriate areas for tool demonstrations. Submissions must not exceed 5 pages and may optionally include 1 further page of bibliography / appendices. They may optionally come with an appendix with a demo outline / screenshots and/or a short video/screencast illustrating the tool. The title of a Tool paper must start with "Tool Demo:".

*New ideas / vision papers
These are papers on forward-looking, innovative research in software language engineering. Our aim here is to accelerate the exposure of the software language engineering community to early yet potentially ground-breaking research results, or to techniques and perspectives that challenge the status quo in the discipline. New ideas / vision papers must not exceed 5 pages, and may optionally include 1 further page of bibliography / appendices. The title of a new ideas / vision papers must start with "New Ideas:" or "Vision:".


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Artifact Evaluation
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For the sixth year, SLE will use an evaluation process for assessing the quality of the artifacts on which papers are based to foster the culture of experimental reproducibility. Authors of accepted papers are invited to submit artifacts. For more information, please have a look at the Artifact Evaluation page (http://www.sleconf.org/2021/ArtifactEvaluation.html).

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Submission
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Submissions have to use the ACM SIGPLAN Conference Format “acmart” (http://sigplan.org/Resources/Author/#acmart-format); please make sure that you always use the latest ACM SIGPLAN acmart LaTeX template(https://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/publications/consolidated-tex-template/acmart-master.zip), and that the document class definition is \documentclass[sigplan,anonymous,review]{acmart}. Do not make any changes to this format!

Ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes in figures and tables are legible.

To increase fairness in reviewing, a double-blind review process has become standard across SIGPLAN conferences. In this line, SLE will follow the double-blind process. Author names and institutions should be omitted from submitted papers, and references to the authors’ own related work should be in the third person. No other changes are necessary, and authors will not be penalized if reviewers are able to infer their identities in implicit ways.

All submissions must be in PDF format.

Concurrent Submissions:
Papers must describe unpublished work that is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere as described by SIGPLAN’s Republication Policy (http://www.sigplan.org/Resources/Policies/Republication). Submitters should also be aware of ACM’s Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism (http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy). Submissions that violate these policies will be desk-rejected.

Submission Site:
Submissions will be accepted at https://sle21.hotcrp.com/

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Reviewing Process
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All submitted papers will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee. Research papers and tool papers will be evaluated concerning novelty, correctness, significance, readability, and alignment with the conference call. New ideas / vision papers will be evaluated primarily concerning novelty, significance, readability, and alignment with the conference call.

For fairness reasons, all submitted papers must conform to the above instructions. Submissions that violate these instructions may be rejected without review, at the discretion of the PC chairs.

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Awards
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* Distinguished paper: Award for most notable paper, as determined by the PC chairs based on the recommendations of the programme committee.

* Distinguished reviewer: Award for distinguished reviewer, as determined by the PC chairs.

* Distinguished artifact: Award for the artifact most significantly exceeding expectations, as determined by the AEC chairs based on the recommendations of the artifact evaluation committee.

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Publication
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All accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library.

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

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Organisation
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Chairs:

* General chair: Eelco Visser, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
* Program co-chair: Dimitris Kolovos, University of York, United Kingdom
* Program co-chair: Emma Söderberg, Lund University, Sweden
* Artefact Evaluation co-chair: Elias Castegren, KTH, Sweden
* Artefact Evaluation co-chair: Andreas Wortmann, RWTH Aachen University, Germany


Program Committee:

Vincent Aranega, University of Lille, France
Mikhail Barash, University of Bergen, Norway
Melanie Bats, Obeo, France
David Broman, KTH, Sweden
Shigeru Chiba, University of Tokyo, Japan
Alfonso de la Vega, University of York, United Kingdom
Juan De Lara, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Davide Di Ruscio, University of L'Aquila, Italy
Marcos Didonet del Fabro, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil
Juergen Dingel, Queen's University, Canada
Michalis Famelis, University of Montreal, Canada
Bernd Fischer, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Niklas Fors, Lund University, Sweden
Antonio Garcia Dominguez, Aston University, United Kingdom
Esther Guerra, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Görel Hedin, Lund University, Sweden
Stuart Hutchesson, Independent, United Kingdom
Adrian Johnstone, Royal Holloway, United Kingdom
Paddy Krishnan, Oracle Labs, Australia
James Noble, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Carlos Olarte, ECT UFRN, Brazil
João Saraiva, HASLab / INESC TEC and Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Anthony Sloane, Macquarie University, Australia
Daniel Strüber, Radboud University , Netherlands
Ulyana Tikhonova, CWI, Netherlands
Mark van der Brand, TU Eindhoven,  Netherlands
Juan Manuel Vara, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
Ran Wei, Dalian University of Technology, China
Bahman Zamani, University of Isfahan, Iran

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Contact
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For additional information, clarification, or answers to questions, please contact the Program Chairs (Emma Söderberg and Dimitris Kolovos).