fse-topic-selection

name	fse-topic-selection
description	Use when deciding whether a software-engineering project belongs at ESEC/FSE or should be routed to ICSE, ASE, ISSTA, MSR, ICSME, or an SE journal (EMSE/TSE/TOSEM), and when distinguishing FSE from its sibling general-SE flagship ICSE by contribution shape, evidence maturity, and the PACMSE journal-style fit.

FSE Topic Selection

Decide the venue before drafting. FSE — the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering, historically ESEC/FSE on its European rotation — is one of the two general software-engineering flagships, alongside ICSE, and the ACM SIGSOFT home for foundational and empirical SE. Its research papers are PACMSE journal articles, so reviewers read for a durable software-engineering contribution, not a one-conference result. A technically strong paper whose real lesson is about compilers, PL semantics, or pure ML is respected and then rejected as out of scope.

The routing question that matters most

FSE and ICSE overlap heavily in scope and reviewer pool, so the decisive question is rarely "is this SE?" but "which SE community and calendar fits this paper now?" Both welcome techniques, empirical studies, and human-factors work. Use the finer signals below and the live deadlines to choose — a strong paper is publishable at either, and the nearer honest deadline usually wins.

Sibling-venue routing table

Signal in your project	Better home	Why
Broad SE contribution, empirical or conceptual, ready now, and the next FSE deadline is nearer	ESEC/FSE	PACMSE journal-style track; the second general-SE flagship
Equally broad, but ICSE's cycle lands sooner or you want its stage	ICSE	Sibling general-SE flagship; different calendar and template (IEEE 10+2)
Core is automating a development task; tool/systems flavor dominates	ASE	Automated software engineering is its named center
Core is testing, program analysis, or fault detection with depth	ISSTA	Deeper testing/analysis expertise, round-based reviewing
The whole method is repository mining	MSR	Purpose-built co-located conference
Maintenance and software evolution focus	ICSME	Scope match
Study is too long or too nuanced for the page budget	EMSE / TSE / TOSEM	Journals with no conference page ceiling; some offer a journal-first path back to an FSE stage

Contribution shapes FSE rewards

• Technique + tool + evaluation on real subjects — a new analysis, testing, repair, synthesis, or recommendation technique, embodied in a tool and evaluated on real systems against credible baselines (the CUTE lineage).
• Empirical study — mining, controlled experiments, or mixed-methods work that changes what the community believes about how software is built or maintained (the flaky-tests lineage).
• Methodology / measurement validity — interrogating an instrument the field relies on (the "are mutants a valid substitute?" lineage) — a distinctly prized FSE mode.
• Human and organizational factors — how practitioners actually use, trust, or abandon tools, with sound qualitative method.
• Foundational or conceptual — models, theories, or formal underpinnings with a clear SE payoff — the "foundations" in the name is not decorative.

The model-swap and re-label tests

Two quick tests sharpen a borderline verdict:

• Model-swap test: if your paper leans on an LLM or learner, ask whether the software- engineering lesson survives swapping the model for another. If not, the model is the contribution and a PL/ML venue fits better.
• Re-label test: could this paper be submitted to ISSTA or ASE unchanged and read as native there? If its heart is testing depth or automation machinery, route accordingly; FSE rewards the broader SE framing and empirical breadth.

Evidence maturity, without the ladder cliché

Fit is necessary but not sufficient: the same idea sits at different doors depending on how far the evidence has come. An observation with an argument but no study is a workshop or vision paper; a working technique evaluated only on examples you chose needs real subjects before the research track; a study too deep for the page budget belongs in a journal first. Submitting one step early earns a polite "promising, but..." and costs a full cycle, because FSE, like its siblings, runs on an annual rhythm.

Cheap reconnaissance before committing

[Scope]   scan the last two FSE programs (dblp, conf.researchr.org) for your subarea
          -> 3+ recent papers = a reviewer pool exists; 0 = opening or mismatch
[Citations] is your bibliography majority SE venues (ICSE/FSE/ASE/ISSTA/EMSE/TSE)?
          -> majority non-SE => reviewers read you as a visitor; naturalize the intro first
[Calendar] compare the next FSE deadline with ICSE/ASE/ISSTA/journal dates -> route to the
          nearest honest fit rather than waiting a year for a marginal preference

Decision procedure

[Audience] who acts differently if the claim holds? -> SE developers/testers/maintainers/researchers?
[Claim type] technique / empirical / methodology / human-factors / foundational
[FSE vs ICSE] both fit? -> choose by calendar, community pull, and template preference
[Sibling check] testing depth -> ISSTA; automation core -> ASE; mining-only -> MSR
[Verdict] ESEC/FSE research track / sibling venue / journal-first, with a one-line reason

Run this before the writing skills; a wrong venue decision wastes every later step. When the verdict is FSE, continue with fse-workflow for the calendar and fse-writing-style for the paper shape.