Description
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Requirements Engineering (RE) is a critical factor in developing high-quality and successful software, systems and services. The REFSQ working conference series is a well-established international forum for discussing current and state-of-the-art RE practices, now celebrating its 24th year. We are excited to hold REFSQ in Utrecht, returning to the location of the first REFSQ meeting in 1994. We very much welcome participants to attend REFSQ'18 in the Netherlands.



Working Conference Format
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REFSQ has a long tradition of being a highly structured and interactive event. Each session is organised to emphasize discussion among the presenters of papers, pre-assigned discussants, and all the other participants. The REFSQ’18 program will include keynote speakers, technical papers, research previews, industrial presentations, as well as posters and tools. Workshops and the REFSQ doctoral symposium will be co-located with the main conference.



Scope
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REFSQ 2018 seeks reports of novel ideas and techniques that enhance the quality of RE products and processes, reflections on current research and industrial RE practices, as well as new views on RE. We invite submissions on any aspect of RE. We encourage researchers and practitioners from the RE, software engineering, information systems, service science, embedded systems, and product management fields to present original work. RE methods, tools and processes are expected to support engineering diverse types of systems of different scale and complexity and are applied in diverse domains. As such, contributions from related areas such as systems engineering, economics, and management, providing insights to RE, are welcome. The special theme of REFSQ’18 is "RE and Digital Transformation" to emphasize an important issue: what role can RE play in the dramatic changes that take place in our society today to innovate and design new heterogeneous systems and services to fit the needs of users and to keep values of society.



Submissions
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We invite original submissions in several categories:

- Technical design papers (15 pages) describe the design of new artifacts, i.e., novel solutions for requirements-related problems or significant improvements of existing solutions.

- Scientific evaluation papers (15 pages) investigate existing real-world problems, evaluate existing real-world implemented artifacts, or validate newly designed artifacts, e.g., by means such as case studies, experiments, simulation, surveys, systematic literature reviews, mapping studies, or action research.

- Vision papers (6 pages) state where research in the field should be heading.

- Research previews (6 pages) describe well-defined research ideas at an early stage of investigation which may not be fully developed.

- Research method papers (15 pages) discuss methodological aspects of good quality empirical RE research. Conclusions should be supported by evidence.


Please submit your paper through the EasyChair system: https://goo.gl/RocwNa


Other Contributions
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REFSQ’18 also calls for workshops focussing on relevant topics, posters, and doctoral symposium submissions. Check out the website!


Call to Requirements Empiricists! Live Study Proposal Submissions
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The REFSQ conference has a tradition of a special plenary session for conducting a "live study" involving the conference attendees. We invites proposal submissions of compelling live studies to be conducted at REFSQ 2018. Details can be found on the REFSQ'18 website.



Publications
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The REFSQ 2018 proceedings will be published in Springer’s LNCS series.


REFSQ 2018 Special Section
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Following the conference, the authors of two of the best manuscripts will be invited to extend their papers into full journal papers, for a Special Section of the Information and Software Technology Journal.


REFSQ Organization
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Local Organization Chair:
Fabiano Dalpiaz – Utrecht University, Netherlands

Background Organisation:
Eric Schmieders – University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Programme Co-Chairs:
Erik Kamsties – Dortmund Univ. of Appl. Sciences, Germany
Jennifer Horkoff – Chalmers, Univ. of Gothenburg, Sweden

Research Methodology Chair:
Nazim Madhavji – University of Western Ontario, Canada

Workshop Co-Chairs:
Klaus Schmid – Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Germany
Paola Spoletini – Kennesaw State University, USA

Posters and Tools Co-Chairs:
Mehrdad Sabetzadeh – Univ. of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Eya Ben Charrada – University of Zurich, Switzerland

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs:
Jolita Ralyté – University of Geneva, Switzerland
Pete Sawyer – Aston University, UK

Industry Track Co-Chairs:
Kim Lauenroth – adesso AG, Dortmund, Germany
Garm Lucassen – Utrecht University, Netherlands


Social Media and Publicity Co-Chairs:
Itzel Morales-Ramirez – Infotec, Mexico
Henning Femmer – Technische Univ. München, Germany


Proceedings Chair:
Fabian Kneer – Dortmund Univ. of Appl. Sciences, Germany

Website Chair
F. Başak Aydemir – Utrecht University, Netherlands


Programme Committee
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Raian Ali, UK
Joao Araujo, Portugal
Fatma Başak Aydemir, Netherlands
Richard Berntsson Svensson, SE
Daniel Berry, Canada
Sjaak Brinkkemper, Netherlands
Simone Bürsner, Germany
Nelly Condori-Fernández, NL
Maya Daneva, Netherlands
Oscar Dieste, Spain
Joerg Doerr, Germany
Alessio Ferrari, Italy
Xavier Franch, Spain
Samuel Fricker, Switzerland
Vincenzo Gervasi, Italy
Martin Glinz, Switzerland
Michael Goedicke, Germany
Paul Grünbacher, Austria
Renata Guizzardi, Brazil
Irit Hadar, Israel
Hermann Kaindl, Austria
Marjo Kauppinen, Finland
Eric Knauss, Sweden
Alessia Knauss, Sweden
Anne Koziolek, Germany
Kim Lauenroth, Germany
Soren Lauesen, Denmark
Emmanuel Letier, UK
Patrick Mäder, Germany
Nazim Madhavji, Canada
Fabio Massacci, Italy
Raimundas Matulevicius, Estonia
John Mylopoulos, Canada
Andreas L. Opdahl, Norway
Barbara Paech, Germany
Elda Paja, Italy
Liliana Pasquale, Ireland
Oscar Pastor Lopez, Spain
Anna Perini, Italy
Klaus Pohl, Germany
Jolita, Ralyté, Switzerland
Björn Regnell, Sweden
Mehrdad Sabetzadeh, Luxembourg
Camille Salinesi, France
Nicolas Sannier, Luxembourg
Pete Sawyer, UK
Klaus Schmid, Germany
Kurt Schneider, Germany
Norbert Seyff, Switzerland
Alberto Siena, Italy
Paola Spoletini, USA
Angelo Susi, Italy
Michael Vierhauser, Austria
Yves Wautelet, Belgium
Roel Wieringa, Netherlands
Krzysztof Wnuk, Sweden
Tao Yue, Norway
Yuanyuan Zhang, UK
Didar Zowghi, Australia