The ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) is the premier conference for empirical software engineering methods and results. Papers are rigorously reviewed by leading international experts and the full paper acceptance rate is competitive. The symposium also provides a stimulating meeting place where researchers and practitioners can report and discuss recent research results on a wide variety of topics, as well as exchange ideas, experiences and challenging problems.
The 2011 symposium particularly emphasizes expanding and enhancing the dialogue between practitioners and researchers, e.g. the exchange of ideas that help communicate the strengths and weaknesses of software engineering technologies and methods from an empirical viewpoint. It also focuses on the design and analysis of empirical studies, ranging from controlled experiments to field studies and from quantitative to qualitative studies. The symposium also provides a forum for exploring the use of data and measurement to understand, evaluate, and model software engineering phenomena. The symposium equally encourages novel work and replication studies.

The relevant topics include, but are not restricted to, the following:

Measurement theory and fundamental issues
Qualitative methods
Infrastructures and novel techniques for conducting empirical studies
Families of experiments
Replication of empirical studies
Cross- and multi-disciplinary methods and studies
Systematic literature reviews
Meta-analysis
Empirical studies of software processes and products
Industrial experience and case studies
Evaluation and comparison of techniques and models
Reports on the benefits / costs associated with using certain technologies
Empirically-based decision making
Development and evaluation of prediction systems
Effort and cost estimation, defect rate and reliability prediction
Mining data from software repositories or other sources
Quality measurement and assurance
Software project experience and knowledge management
Technology transfer
Measurement and process improvement programs
We are seeking the following types of submission:

Full papers
Industry experience reports
Short papers
Technology transfer
Posters
All submissions will be peer reviewed. Please note, every accepted submission must have a minimum of one author registration.

full paper submissions

High quality papers describing unpublished, original work are solicited on any software engineering topic, provided there is a substantial empirical dimension to the work being presented. Such contribution might take the form of a case/field study, controlled experiment, survey, meta-analysis of previous studies, enhancement of empirical/experimental methods or critical review of previous empirical work (e.g. from a methodological standpoint).
Papers are limited to 10 pages, must be written in English, and be formatted according to the IEEE authoring guidelines. Papers which exceed 10 pages, are outside the scope of the symposium, or do not follow the formatting guidelines will be rejected without review.

industry experience reports

We particularly encourage industry experience reports describing the outcomes (positive or negative) of evaluating or deploying different technologies, ideas or methods in an industrial setting, as well as the lessons learned. Here the main emphasis should be a detailed description of the setting, challenges, events and lessons learned. It may be that the description of related work will be less extensive than for a traditional full paper. At least one author must be from industry. Such papers should be between 4 and 10 pages in length and conform to the IEEE authoring guidelines. Those papers that are accepted will be published in the proceedings and the Digital Library and the authors will be able to present and discuss their experiences at the conference.

short paper submissions

The goal of short papers is to promote current work on research, practices, experiences, and issues. Short papers are an early communication of technical work and do not always require complete results as in the case of a normal conference publication. In this way, authors can introduce new ideas to the community, discuss controversial issues, and get early feedback. Please note that short papers are NOT intended to be position statements. Short papers that are accepted will be published in the proceedings and the Digital Library.
Short papers must not exceed 4 pages and must be formatted according to the IEEE authoring guidelines.
poster sessions

The ESEM Poster Sessions provide an excellent forum for authors to present their work in an informal and interactive setting. Posters are ideal for presenting speculative, late-breaking results or for giving an introduction to interesting, innovative work. Poster Sessions separate themselves from the Short Paper Sessions by allowing authors the ability to get immediate, personal feedback from conference attendees during the break sessions as they present their work. Posters also provide conference attendees an opportunity to see emerging work in the field in a more relaxed setting.
Successful posters are carefully designed to convey technical details. They should also attract the attention of attendees as they stroll past the displays. The goal is to develop a poster that encourages and facilitates small groups of individuals interested in a technical area to gather and interact. Posters that present work in progress and draw important conclusions from practical experience are especially welcome.

Poster proposals must not exceed 1 page but need not be formatted according to IEEE authoring guidelines.