Tools Track

Call for Papers

The Tools Track is an important part of the Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES). This track aims to provide a forum that enables researchers and practitioners to present and demonstrate tools to support any aspect related to software engineering. The track consists of both technical presentations and practical demos of the tools, fostering discussion among the author(s) and SBES attendees from academia and industry.

Researchers are welcome to submit the tools that are outcomes of applied research, while industry professionals are welcome to present commercial or in-house tools that have brought gains in productivity and/or quality to software development processes.

Important Dates

Manuscript/Video Preparation and Submission

We invite authors to submit papers describing supporting tools for diverse aspects and needs to be related to the topics of interest and themes listed in the SBES CFP, including tools that provide support to:

• Activities of the software development process (specification, design and implementation, validation and verification, and evolution);
• Supporting activities of the software development process (e.g., project management and configuration management);
• Software engineering research (such as tools to support conducting empirical studies or systematic literature reviews).

Each submission consists of a paper and a demo video about the tool. Submissions must conform to the following submission and formatting instructions:

• The paper must be original and not submitted or published in other academic vehicles.
• The paper should clearly include:
  • Description of the motivation/problem addressed by the tool;
  • Description of the main functionalities and potential users of the tool;
  • Usage example and screenshots illustrating the tool interface (where applicable);
  • Description of the tool architecture, core components, and their interfaces;
  • A brief comparison with existing related tools; and
  • The type of software license.
• Papers must be formatted according to the ACM 2-column conference (ACM_SigConf) format available at this link https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. LaTeX users must use the acmart.cls class provided in the template with the conference format enabled in the document preamble:

\documentclass[sigconf]{acmart}

Additionally, some sections must be removed from the standard ACM template using:

\setcopyright{none}
\settopmatter{printccs=false}
\settopmatter{printacmref=false}
\renewcommand\footnotetextcopyrightpermission[1]{}

Authors must use the ACM-Reference-Format.bst bibliography style also provided in the template:

\bibliographystyle{ACM-Reference-Format}

Below the Conclusion section, authors must include an unnumbered section named "Artefact Availability":

\section*{Artefact Availability}

• Papers must be no longer than 6 (six) pages, including all figures (in good quality), tables, appendices, and acknowledgments, plus up to 1 (one) additional page for references. Papers can be written in Portuguese or English. Papers in Portuguese must also include an abstract in English. Papers must be submitted in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
• A link to a high-resolution demo video with audio describing the steps (details of the tool's functionality should be clearly visible) MUST be appended at the end of the paper abstract. The video must be from three to five minutes long. It should demonstrate tool usage and highlight its main contributions. The video should also provide an overview of the tool, its goals and envisioned users, main features, and outputs.
• The demo video should be hosted in a permanent location (archived on preserved digital repositories such as zenodo.org, figshare.com, www.softwareheritage.org, osf.io). Hosting one version of the video on streaming platforms (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo) is also encouraged to make it easier for the reviewers and the general audience to watch. Authors are strongly encouraged to make the code and datasets of their academic tools open source and provide a URL for them with the submission. Once again, preserved digital repositories are preferred (e.g., zenodo.org, figshare.com, www.softwareheritage.org). When it comes to in-house tools, authors are advised to provide a clear explanation for the decision to keep them proprietary rather than open-sourcing them.
• The demo must present the tool with audio in the same language in which the paper is written.
• The Tools Track will use the single-anonymous reviewing model, so please include the authors’ identities in the submission materials.
• Papers should be submitted electronically through JEMS 3.

Submissions that do not include a paper AND a video demo, are not in compliance with the required submission format, are out of the scope of the track, or were submitted or published in any other forum (conference or journal), will be desk-rejected without review and the program chairs of the other(s) venue(s) will be notified. All other papers will be reviewed by at least three program committee members.

On the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) or AI-assisted technologies

When submitting papers to SBES 2026 - Tools Track, authors acknowledge that they comply with the Generative AI usage policy, based on existing policies proposed by IEEE, ACM, and Springer.

Prohibited:

• Listing Generative AI tools and technologies, such as ChatGPT, as authors of papers; and
• Using texts or sections entirely produced by generative AI tools.

Allowed (with explicit mention in acknowledgments):

• Using generative AI tools to create parts of the content, with acknowledgment in the paper's acknowledgments section indicating what was generated and which tool was used. Authors are responsible for checking the tool's terms of use. For example, in the acknowledgments: ChatGPT was used to generate the first paragraph of Section 3 and to create Table 3.2.

Allowed (without the need for the mention):

• Using AI or AI-assisted technologies to improve the quality of images in terms of contrast and clarity; and
• Using generative AI tools to edit and enhance the quality of existing text (similar to an assistant-like Grammarly for improving spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, and engagement).

Evaluation Criteria

Each submission will be reviewed according to the evaluation criteria below:

• the relevance of the proposed tool for the SBES audience;
• ⁠the tool’s novelty and how the tool relates to previous industrial or research efforts;
• the quality of the tool presentation in the paper and in the associated video; and
• ⁠the degree to which it considers the relevant literature.

Desk Rejection

Submissions that fall outside the scope of the SBES 2026 Tools Track or do not comply with the required format and other rules will be rejected without review.

If a previous publication of the paper or simultaneous submission for a refereed venue (event or journal) is identified, the paper will be rejected at any time, and authors may be prevented from submitting papers in future SBES editions. Additionally, the organizers of the other venue will be informed about the fact.

If evidence is found that generative AI tools were used in the submission in ways that do not comply with the guidelines for the use of generative AI in this call, the paper will be rejected without review, and the authors may be prevented from submitting papers in future SBES editions.

General Information

The publication of the paper requires that at least one author register (according to the registration rules established by the local organizing committee) and attend SBES 2026 in São Paulo IN PERSON to present both the paper and the tool. The presentation of the paper and the demonstration of the tool are mandatory for all accepted tool papers. Tool demonstrations must be conducted in person, and submitted demonstration videos must not be used for this purpose. The presentation format and schedule will be announced at a later date. Accepted papers that are not presented will not be included in the SBES 2026 proceedings.

Outstanding Paper Award

SBES 2026 will grant an award to the best paper in the Tools Track. The winning paper will be announced during the opening session of CBSoft 2026.

Outstanding Reviewer Award

The SBES Tools Track recognizes the generosity and effort of the Program Committee members who dedicate their time to reviewing submitted work. A certificate of Outstanding Reviewer will be awarded to those who stand out among their peers in terms of punctuality, adherence to the track’s review criteria, technical quality of the reviews, and active participation in Program Committee discussions.

Organization

Program Committee Chairs

Edna Dias Canedo - Universidade de Brasília (UnB)

Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO)

Tools Track