[ecoop-info] Call for Papers -- MODELS 2020

[Thomas Kühne]

MoDELS 2020
ACM/IEEE 23d International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems

Montreal, Canada
18 - 23 October 2020
http://www.modelsconference.org/

Contributions related to all aspects of modeling, modeling languages and model-based engineering are cordially invited to the 23rd edition of MODELS, in Montreal, Canada 18-23 October 2020.

MODELS is the premier conference series for model-based software and systems engineering. Since 1998, MODELS has covered all aspects of modeling, from languages and methods, to tools and applications. Attendees of MODELS come from diverse backgrounds, including researchers, academics, engineers and industrial professionals. MODELS 2020 is a forum for participants to exchange cutting-edge research results and innovative practical experiences around modeling and model-based software and systems.

This year’s edition will provide an opportunity for the modeling community to further advance the foundations of modeling, and come up with innovative applications of modeling in emerging areas of cyber-physical systems, embedded systems, socio-technical systems, cloud computing, big data, machine learning, security, open source, and sustainability.

In 2020, MODELS has a special theme on “Modeling in the era of data”. We especially encourage contributions where model-driven engineering intersects with research and applications on, not exclusively, data curation, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, and smart cities.

We invite you to join us at MODELS 2020, Montreal, Canada and to help shape the modelling methods and technologies of the future!

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    Call for Papers
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Submissions are organized along 2 tracks:

Foundations Track
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We invite authors to submit high quality contributions describing significant, original, and unpublished results in the following categories:

- Technical Papers: Technical papers should describe innovative research in modelling or model-driven engineering activities. Papers in this submission category should describe a novel contribution to the field and should carefully support claims of novelty with citations to the relevant literature.

Evaluation Criteria: Technical papers are evaluated on the basis of originality, soundness, relevance, importance of contribution, strength of validation, quality of presentation and appropriate comparison to related work. Where a submission builds upon previous work of the author(s), the novelty of the new contribution must be described clearly with respect to the previous work. Technical papers need to discuss clearly how the results were validated (e.g., formal proofs, controlled experiments, rigorous case studies, or simulations). Authors are strongly encouraged to make the artifacts used for the evaluation publicly accessible, e.g., through a Github repository or an alternative that is likely to remain available. There will be an artifact evaluation process, as discussed below.

- New Ideas and Vision Papers: We solicit short papers that present new ideas and visions. Such papers may describe new, non-conventional model-driven 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 that common wisdom should be challenged, present new unifying theories about existing modeling research that provides novel insight or that can lead to the development of new technologies or approaches, or apply modeling technology to radically new application areas.

Evaluation Criteria: New ideas and vision papers will be assessed primarily on their level of originality and potential for impact on the field in terms of promoting innovative thinking. Hence, inadequacies in the state-of-the-art and the pertinence, correctness, and impact of the idea/vision must be described clearly, even though the new idea need not be fully worked out, and a fully detailed roadmap need not be presented.


Practice and Innovation Track
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The goal of this track is to fill the gap between foundational research in model-based engineering (MBE) and industrial needs. We invite authors from academia and/or industry to submit original contributions reporting on the development of innovative MBE solutions in industries, public sector, or open-source settings, as well as innovative application of MBE in such contexts. Examples include:

- Scalable and cost-effective methodologies and tools
- Industrial case studies with valuable lessons learned
- Experience reports providing novel insights

Each paper should provide clear take-away value by describing the context of a problem of practical importance, and the application of MBE that leads to a solution.

Evaluation Criteria: A paper in the practice & innovation Track will be evaluated mainly from its practical take-away and the potential impact of the findings. More specifically, the paper should discuss why the solution to the problem is innovative (e.g., in terms of advancing the state-of-practice), effective, and/or efficient, and what likely practical impact it has or will have; the paper should provide a concise explanation of approaches, techniques, methodologies and tools employed; The paper should explain best practices that emerged, tools developed, and/or software processes involved. Studies reporting on negative findings must provide a thorough discussion of the potential causes of failure, and ideally a perspective on how to solve them.


Topics of Interest
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MODELS 2020 seeks submissions on diverse topics related to modeling for software and systems engineering, including, but not limited to:
- Foundations of MBE, including definition of the syntax and semantics of modeling and model transformation languages.
- New paradigms, formalisms, applications, approaches, frameworks, or processes for MBE.
- Development, use, and evolution of domain-specific modeling languages.
- Definition, usage, and analysis of generative and reengineering approaches.
- Development of systems engineering and modeling-in-the-large concepts.
- Search-based MBE and artificial intelligence for MBE.
- Human factors in model-based software and systems engineering.
- Tools, meta-tools and language workbenches for MBE, including model management.
- Integration of modeling languages and tools (hybrid multi-modeling approaches).
- Evaluation and comparison of modeling languages, techniques and tools.
- Quality assurance (analysis, testing, verification) for functional and non-functional properties of models and model transformations.
- Collaborative modeling research to address global and team management issues (e.g., browser-based and cloud-enabled collaboration research and tools).
- Evolution of general-purpose modeling languages and related standards.
- Evidence-based education research for curricular concerns on modeling topics.
- Modeling in software engineering; applications of models to address general software engineering challenges.
- Modeling for specific challenges such as collaboration, scalability, security, interoperability, adaptability, flexibility, maintainability, dependability, reuse, energy efficiency, and uncertainty.
- Modeling with, and for, new and emerging systems and paradigms such as cyber-security, cyber-physical systems (CPSs), the internet of things (IoTs), cloud computing, DevOps, data analytics, data science, machine learning, big data, systems engineering, social media, devices and services, robotics, mobile applications, conversational agents, open source software, sustainability and modeling for social good.


Submission Guidelines
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MODELS 2020 will employ a *double-blind* review process. Thus, no submission may reveal its authors’ identities. The authors must make every effort to honor the double-blind review process. In particular, the authors’ names must be omitted from the submission and references to their prior work should be in the third person. For more information, check the submission information page.

Papers must be submitted electronically through the MODELS 2019 EasyChair page:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=models2020

“Foundations” and “Practice and Innovation” papers must not exceed 10 pages for the main text, inclusive of all figures, tables, appendices, etc. Two more pages containing only references are permitted.

“New Ideas/Vision” papers must not exceed 6 pages for the main text, inclusive of all figures, tables, appendices, etc. One more page containing only references is permitted.

Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings published by ACM. Selected papers from the conference will be invited to revise and submit extended versions of the papers for publication in the Journal of Software and Systems Modeling (Springer, 2.660 IF).


Review Process
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MODELS 2020’s double blind review process will use a single phase with no rebuttals. There will be an extended discussion phase monitored by one or two Program Board members assigned to each paper.

Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit their accompanying artifacts (e.g., software, datasets, proofs) to the Artifact Evaluation process. The Artifact Evaluation process is run by a separate committee whose task is to assess how the artifacts support the results presented in the papers. Participation in the Artifact Evaluation process is optional and does not affect the final decision regarding the papers. Papers that successfully go through the Artifact Evaluation process will be rewarded with a seal of approval printed on the paper themselves. The artifacts will be archived.

Important Dates
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* 30 April 2020: Abstract submission
* 8 May 2020: Paper submission (firm)
* 6 July 2020: Author notification
* 26 July 2020: Camera Ready Due

Please note that
- abstract submission is mandatory.
- all deadlines are hard. No extensions will be granted.
- all dates are according to time zone “Anywhere on Earth”, i.e., UTC-12.

Organization
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General Chairs:
- Houari Sahraoui, Universitè de Montreal, Canada
- Eugene Syriani, Universitè de Montreal, Canada

Foundations Track Chair:
- Juan de Lara, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Practice and Innovation Track Chair:
- Silvia Abrahão, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

Workshop Co-Chairs:
- Nelly Bencomo, Aston University, UK
- Mathieu Acher, Université of Rennes 1, France

Tutorials Co-Chairs:
- Iris Reinhartz-Berger, University of Haifa, Israel
- Richard Paige, McMaster University, Canada

Tools & Demos Co-Chairs:
- Benoit Combemale, University of Toulouse and INRIA, France
- Manuel Wimmer, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria

Posters Co-Chairs:
- Djamel Eddine Khelladi, CNRS, France
- Ferhat Khendek, Concordia University, Canada

Artifact Evaluation Co-Chairs:
- Hüseyin Ergin, Ball State University, USA
- Matthew Stephan, Miami University, USA

Educators Symposium Co-Chairs:
- Daria Bogdanova, KU Leuven, Belgium
- Michalis Famelis, Université de Montréal, Canada

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs:
- Juergen Dingel, Queen's University, Canada
- Manar H. Alalfi, Ryerson University, Canada

ACM Student Research Competition Co-Chairs:
- Davide Di Ruscio, Università of L'Aquila, Italy
- Daniel Varró, McGill University, Canada / Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

Student Volunteers Chair:
- Sébastien Mosser, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Proceedings Co-Chairs:
- Esther Guerra, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
- Ludovico Iovino, Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy

Panel Chair:
- Zhenjiang Hu, Peking University, China

Sponsor Chair:
- Francis Bordeleau, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), Canada

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (Africa):
- Bernd Fischer, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (Asia):
- Hui Song, SINTEF Digital, Norway

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (Central America):
- Phillipa Bennett, University of the West Indies, Jamaica

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (Europe):
- Romina Eramo, University of L’Aquila, Italy

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (North America):
- Omar Badreddin, University of Texas, USA

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (Oceania):
- Thomas Kuehne, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Regional Publicity Co-Chair (South America):
- Jocelyn Simmonds, University of Chile, Chile

Social Media Chair:
- Sahar Kokaly, General Motors and University of Toronto, Canada

Entertainment Chair:
- Jörg Kienzle, McGill University, Canada

Multimedia Chair:
- Olivier Barais, University of Rennes 1, France

Finance Chair:
- Linda Lamarre, Université de Montréal, Canada

Web Co-Chairs:
- Manouchehr Zadahmad, Université de Montréal, Canada
- Erick Raelijohn, Université de Montréal, Canada