SLE (Software Language Engineering) 2023

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 16th edition of the SLE conference, SLE 2023, 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.

SLE 2023 will be co-located with SPLASH 2023 and take place in Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal.

• Community website: http://www.sleconf.org/2023
• Conference website: https://conf.researchr.org/home/sle-2023
• Submission website: https://sle23.hotcrp.com

Call for Papers

Topics of Interest

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, language and software product lines
• 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
• Synergies between Language Engineering and emerging/promising research areas
  • AI and ML language engineering (e.g., ML compiler testing, code classification) Quantum language engineering (e.g., language design for quantum machines)
  • Language engineering for physical systems (e.g., CPS, IoT, digital twins)
  • Socio-technical systems and language engineering (e.g., language evolution to adapt to social requirements)
  • Etc.

Types of Submissions

SLE accepts the following types of papers:

• Research papers: These are “traditional” papers detailing research contributions to SLE. Papers may range from 6 to 12 pages in length and may optionally include 2 further pages of bibliography/appendices. Papers will be reviewed with an understanding that some results do not need 12 full pages and may be fully described in fewer pages.

• New ideas/vision papers: These papers may describe new, unconventional software language engineering research positions or approaches that depart from standard practice. They can describe well-defined research ideas that are at an early stage of investigation. They could also provide new evidence to challenge common wisdom, present new unifying theories about existing SLE research that provides novel insight or that can lead to the development of new technologies or approaches, or apply SLE technology to radically new application areas. New ideas/vision papers must not exceed 5 pages and may optionally include 1 further page of bibliography/appendices.

• SLE Body of Knowledge: The SLE Body of Knowledge (SLEBoK) is a community-wide effort to provide a unique and comprehensive description of the concepts, best practices, tools, and methods developed by the SLE community. In this respect, the SLE conference will accept surveys, essays, open challenges, empirical observations, and case study papers on the SLE topics. These can focus on, but are not limited to, methods, techniques, best practices, and teaching approaches. Papers in this category can have up to 20 pages, including bibliography/appendices.

• Tool papers: These papers focus on the tooling aspects often forgotten or neglected in research papers. A good tool paper focuses on practical insights that will likely 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 include an appendix with a demo outline/screenshots and/or a short video/screencast illustrating the tool.

Workshops: Workshops will be organized by SPLASH. Please inform us and contact the SPLASH organizers if you would like to organize a workshop of interest to the SLE audience. Information on how to submit workshops can be found on the SPLASH 2023 Website.

Submission

Two submission rounds

For the second time, SLE will follow a two-phase submission and review process. This gives authors submitting to the first round an extra opportunity to improve their work (if needed) based on the comments and feedback from the reviewers. Furthermore, this will increase the quality of accepted papers.

Manuscripts can be submitted to any of the two submission rounds.

Decisions on the papers submitted to the first round will be: accept, reject, or re-submit revised version. While rejected papers must not, revised versions may be submitted to the second round, with an accompanying response letter to the reviewers stating the changes made and how the authors addressed the reviewers’ criticisms. The same reviewers will review the re-submissions.

Decisions on fresh papers submitted to the second round will be: accept or reject. The authors of those papers that are likely to be rejected but have at least one reviewer championing it will have the chance to respond to the reviewers before the final decision is made.

Format

Submissions have to use the ACM SIGPLAN Conference Format “acmart”; please make sure that you always use the latest ACM SIGPLAN acmart LaTeX template, 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. The submission website is: https://sle23.hotcrp.com

Concurrent Submissions

Papers must describe unpublished work that is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere as described by SIGPLAN’s Republication Policy. Submitters should also be aware of ACM’s Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism. Submissions that violate these policies will be desk-rejected.

Policy on Human Participant and Subject Research

Authors conducting research involving human participants and subjects must ensure that their research comply with their local governing laws and regulations and the ACM’s general principles as stated in the ACM’s Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Submissions that violate this policy will be rejected.

Reviewing Process

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. SLEBoK papers will be reviewed on their significance, readability, topicality and capacity of presenting/evaluating/demonstrating a piece of BoK about SLE.

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.

After each review round, authors will get a chance to respond before a final decision is made.

Artifact Evaluation

For the eighth year, SLE will use an evaluation process to assess the quality of the artifacts on which papers are based to foster the culture of experimental reproducibility. Authors of accepted research papers are invited to submit artifacts. For more information, please have a look at the Artifact Evaluation page.

Awards

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

Publication

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.

SLE and Doctoral Students

SLE encourages students to submit to the SPLASH doctoral symposium. Authors of accepted papers will also have the chance to present their work to the SLE audience.

Contact

For additional information, clarification, or answers, please get in touch with the program co-chairs (E.Scott at rhul.ac.uk and thomas.degueule at labri.fr).

SLE will use an evaluation process for assessing the quality of artifacts on which papers are based. The aim of this evaluation process is to foster a culture of experimental reproducibility and to provide a peer review process for artifacts as well as papers.

Authors of papers accepted for SLE 2023 will be invited to submit artifacts. Any kind of artifact that is presented in the paper, supplements the paper with further details, or underlies the paper can be submitted. This includes, for instance; tools, grammars, metamodels, models, programs, algorithms, scripts, proofs, datasets, statistical tests, checklists, surveys, interview protocols, visualizations, annotated bibliographies, and tutorials.

The submitted artifacts will be reviewed by a dedicated Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC). Artifacts that live up to the expectations created by the paper will receive a badge of approval from the AEC. The approved artifacts will be invited for inclusion in the electronic conference proceedings published in the ACM Digital Library. This will ensure the permanent and durable storage of the artifacts alongside the published papers fostering the repeatability of experiments, enabling precise comparison with alternative approaches, and helping the dissemination of the author’s ideas in detail.

The AEC will award the artifact that most significantly exceeds the expectations with a Distinguished Artifact Award.

Participating in the artifact evaluation and publishing approved artifacts in the ACM Digital Library is voluntary. However, we strongly encourage authors to consider this possibility as the availability of artifacts will greatly benefit readers of papers and increase the impact of the work. Note that the artifact evaluation cannot affect the acceptance of the paper, as the author notification precedes the artifact evaluation.

The artifact evaluation process of SLE borrows heavily from processes described at www.artifact-eval.org and from previous experience in SLE, ECOOP, and ICSCME. The process is detailed in the below.

Submission

If and when your paper has been accepted for SLE 2023, you will be invited by the AEC chairs to submit the artifacts related to your work. This invitation will contain detailed instructions on how to submit your artifacts.

An artifact submission comprises the following components:

• Paper: Preprint PDF version of the accepted SLE 2023 paper. The paper will be used to evaluate the consistency of the accepted paper and the submitted artifact, as well as to assess whether the artifact lives up to the expectations created by the paper.
• Authors of the artifact: This list may include people who are not authors of the accepted paper, but contributed to creating the artifact.
• Abstract: A short description of the artifact to be used for assignments of artifacts to AEC members.
• Artifact: An archive file (gz, xz, or zip) containing everything needed for supporting a full evaluation of the artifact. The archive file has to include at least the artifact itself and a text file README.txt that contains the following information:
  • An overview of the archive file documenting the content of the archive.
  • A setup / installation guide giving detailed instructions on how to setup or install the submitted artifact.
  • Detailed step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce any experiments or other activities that support the conclusions given in the paper.

If multiple artifacts relate to an accepted SLE paper, all artifacts should be collected in one archive and submitted together as one single submission. For instance, if a tool has been developed, a tutorial has been authored with detailed instructions on how to use the tool, and user studies have been performed evaluating the tool’s usability, the tool, the tutorial, and the raw data collected in the user study should be collected in one archive file and submitted together in one single submission to the SLE 2023 artifact evaluation.

When preparing your artifact, consider that your artifact should be as accessible to the AEC as possible. In particular, it should be possible for the AEC to quickly make progress in the investigation of your artifact. Please provide some simple scenarios describing concretely how the artifact is intended to be used. For a tool, this would include specific inputs to provide or actions to take, and expected output or behavior in response to this input.

For artifacts that are tools, it is recommended to provide the tool installed and ready to use on a virtual machine for VirtualBox, VMware, SHARE, a Docker image, or a similar widely available platform.

Please use widely supported open formats for documents (e.g., PDF, HTML) and data (e.g., CSV, JSON).

Evaluation Process

Submitted artifacts will be evaluated by the AEC concerning the following criteria. Artifacts should be:

• consistent with the paper,
• as complete as possible,
• well documented, and
• easy to (re)use, facilitating further research.

Each submitted artifact will be evaluated by at least two members of the AEC. Thereby, the artifacts will be treated confidentially, as with the submitted paper.

Artifacts that pass the evaluation will receive an “Artifact Evaluated - Functional” badge and be invited for inclusion in the electronic conference proceedings published in the ACM Digital Library. In addition, artifacts that will be included in the ACM Digital Library or that will be made permanently available in another publicly accessible archival repository will also receive the “Artifact Available” badge.

Detailed definitions of these badges and the respective evaluation criteria may be found at the ACM Artifact Review Badging site.

The evaluation consists of two steps:

1. Kicking-the-tires: Reviewers will check the artifact’s integrity and look for any possible setup problems that may prevent it from being properly evaluated (e.g., corrupted or missing files, VM won’t start, immediate crashes on the simplest example, etc.). In case of any problems, authors will be given several days to read and respond to the kick-the-tires reports of their artifacts and solve any issues preventing the artifact evaluation.
2. Artifact assessment: Reviewers evaluate the artifacts and decide on the approval of the artifact.

As the artifact evalutation notification will be after the camera ready deadline, we will ensure that the published article will carry the corresponding ACM Artifact Evaluation Badge. Moreover, we adviced the authors to provide a stable link to your artifact already in your camera ready version, for instance, with a DOI link to a Zenodo repository.

Important Dates

• Artifact submissions: August 30, 2023
• Artifact kick-the-tires Author response: September 15, 2023
• Artifact notification: September 29, 2023

Further Information

For further information on the artifact evaluation of SLE 2023, feel free to contact the artifact evaluation chairs by email.