Call for Papers

Advancing Software Engineering with Large Language Models

A special issue of the Empirical Software Engineering Journal. http://www.springer.com/computer/swe/journal/10664

Editors of the Special Issue

Lucia Passaro, University of Pisa, Italy
Humberto Torres Marques-Neto, Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Marco Tulio Valente, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Contact Person

Lucia Passaro, University of Pisa, Italy, mail: lucia.passaro@unipi.it

Description of the Special Issue

The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) presents a transformative opportunity for Software Engineering (SE). Despite recent advancements, the integration of LLMs in SE remains in its early stages. Preliminary research focused on specific applications of LLMs, such as code generation, testing, and requirements engineering. However, a comprehensive understanding of their capabilities, limitations, and overall impact is still missing. Current studies predominantly address isolated aspects of LLM integration, with a notable absence of holistic investigations encompassing the entire software development lifecycle. Moreover, empirical evidence regarding the practical benefits, challenges, and ethical considerations of LLM deployment in real-world software projects is limited.

Topics of Interest

This special issue aims to bridge these research gaps by offering a dedicated platform for researchers and practitioners to share their experiences, insights, and innovative strategies for integrating LLMs into SE practices. By building on existing research, our goals are to (i) consolidate and expand the body of knowledge on LLMs in SE, highlighting research gaps and emerging trends, (ii) promote the development of robust, reliable LLM-based tools and methodologies, and (iii) foster collaboration between academia and industry to expedite the adoption of LLMs in a reliable way. We invite submissions on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:

Requirement and Software Product Management Techniques
Models, Methods, and Tools for Software Development
Software Processes Analysis and Improvement
DevOps and Continuous Integration and Deployment
Software Quality Analysis and Improvement
Code Reuse and Explainability
Software Comprehension, Maintenance, and Evolution
Human Factors and Management
Empirical Software Engineering Research
Evaluation and Benchmarking
Software Testing
Software Architecture

Important Dates

Expected First Submission: September 5, 2025
(Tentative) First Review Round Completed: October 10, 2025
(Tentative) Revised Manuscripts Due: November 14, 2025
(Tentative) Final Author Notification: November 28, 2025

Submission type

We welcome submissions of original research papers, case studies, and practical reports. All submissions should provide substantial evidence to support their claims through empirical studies, simulations, formal proofs, or other types of validation. Authors are encouraged to make Open Science material available at the time of submission, such as study protocols, raw or analysed data, data analysis scripts, source code, and experimental materials.

Submitted papers should present original, unpublished work, relevant to one of the topics of the Special Issue. All submitted papers will be evaluated on the basis of relevance, significance of contribution, technical quality, scholarship, and quality of presentation, by at least two independent reviewers. It is the policy of the journal that no submission, or substantially overlapping submission, be published or be under review at another journal or conference at any time during the review process.

Submission Instructions

Papers should be submitted through the Empirical Software Engineering editorial manager website (http://www.editorialmanager.com/emse/) as follows:

Select “Research Papers”
on the Additional Information page: Answer “Yes” to “Does this paper belong to a special issue?” and select “2025-SE-LLMs” for “Please select the issue your manuscript belongs to”.

For formatting guidelines as well as submission instructions, visit http://www.springer.com/computer/swe/journal/10664?detailsPage=pltci_2530593