--- name: icsme-workflow description: Use when planning an IEEE ICSME project timeline from venue and track choice through abstract registration, paper submission, the early-decision cut and author-response rebuttal, notification, IEEE Xplore camera-ready, the ROSE-Festival artifact evaluation, and presentation, with backward-planning offsets for a maintenance/evolution paper and honest handling of the single-annual-round calendar. --- # ICSME Workflow Use this as the project-management skill for an ICSME submission. Replace every date with the current official timetable and work backwards from the EasyChair **abstract** cutoff — which precedes the paper deadline. ICSME runs a **single annual research round** with **no journal-style Major Revision**: a paper is accepted or rejected in one cycle, so front-load the evidence and plan the author-response rebuttal, not a revise-and-resubmit. ICSME is an IEEE conference with **no standing editor-in-chief** and no APC: proceedings go to IEEE Xplore and the cost model is registration. Rotating leadership is the per-edition General and Program Co-Chairs (ICSME 2026 committee roster **待核实** on the access date); re-check the organizing-committee page rather than carrying names forward. ICSME 2026 is the **42nd** edition in **Benevento, Italy** (University of Sannio), **14-18 September 2026**, co-located with SCAM and VISSOFT. ## Milestones - **Venue and track fit:** confirm ICSME over ICSE/FSE/SANER/MSR and pick the track — research, Journal-First, Registered Reports, RENE, NIER, tool-demo, or industry (`icsme-topic-selection`). - **Evidence lock:** freeze research questions, subject systems and their change history, baselines, statistics, threats, and the artifact contents. - **Abstract registration:** submit real title, abstract, authors, and topics by the earlier abstract deadline (ICSME 2026: 27 Feb 2026). - **Paper submission:** upload the anonymized PDF and data-availability statement (ICSME 2026: 6 Mar 2026). - **Early-decision cut:** at the response period's start, some papers are already Accept or Reject; the rest are "Response Recommended" (ICSME 2026 early decisions: 3 May 2026). - **Author response:** if invited, answer the PC's specific questions with existing evidence. - **Notification:** final accept/reject (ICSME 2026: 29 May 2026); archive reviews and the response. - **Acceptance:** prepare the IEEE Xplore camera-ready, submit to the ROSE-Festival artifact track for IEEE badges, register, and present. ## Backward plan from the paper deadline | Weeks out (heuristic) | Maintenance/evolution milestone | |---|---| | 10+ | Research questions fixed; subject systems and their change-history window chosen | | 8 | Mining / data collection complete; repository SHAs and extraction dates logged | | 6 | Analysis done; effect sizes and tests computed; threats drafted alongside results | | 4 | Full draft in IEEEtran conference format; artifact assembled and anonymized | | 3 | Internal mock review by a maintenance-empiricist reader | | 2 | Threats hardened, related-work delta sharpened, 10-page budget met | | 1 | Anonymity sweep on PDF and artifact; data-availability statement final | | 0 | Abstract registered by its earlier cutoff, then paper + artifact link on EasyChair | These offsets are planning heuristics only — anchor every one to the current Important Dates page, never to a previous cycle's calendar. ## The single-round calendar reality ICSME runs one annual research round; the author-response rebuttal is the *only* mid-cycle lever, and there is no Major Revision to fall back on. Planning consequences: - **A rejected paper waits a full year** at ICSME. Before idling, check whether a sibling (SANER, ICSE, FSE) has a nearer deadline, or whether the work is better routed to TSE/EMSE and returned later via the **Journal-First** track. - **A not-yet-finished study** may fit **Registered Reports** (protocol reviewed first) rather than being rushed into the research track and rejected on thin evidence. - **A replication or negative result** has a dedicated home in **RENE** — do not force it into the research track where novelty framing will hurt it. ## Failure modes by stage - **Mining still running at week 4** forces last-minute analysis nobody has audited — the classic soundness reject for an evolution study. - **Naming your own subject system or public corpus** breaks double-anonymity when the artifact is left to the final week. - **Skipping the mock review** forfeits the one chance to hear "your baseline maintainer study is confounded" from a friend instead of a reviewer. - **Treating the author response as a debate** wastes the single rebuttal ICSME gives you; answer the PC's specific questions with evidence, not argument. ## Coordination notes - Assign one owner for the data-availability / artifact and another for the anonymity sweep; shared ownership is how both slip under double-anonymity. - Archive the exact submitted PDF and artifact; the response period must quote the paper precisely and stay anonymous. - The ROSE-Festival artifact submission is a separate, post-acceptance deadline shared with SCAM and VISSOFT — calendar it apart from the camera-ready. ## Output format ```text [Current stage] idea / evidence / abstract / submitted / response period / accepted [Track] research / journal-first / registered report / RENE / NIER / tool-demo / industry [Next official deadline] [Critical path] [Risk register] [Owner map] person or role> ```