Call for Doctoral Symposium Papers

REFSQ2017 will host a Doctoral Symposium for PhD students whose research area includes elements of Requirements Engineering. The goals of the REFSQ2017 Doctoral Symposium are:
  • to provide PhD students in early stages of their research with an opportunity to survey the field and get a feeling for what their colleagues are working on;
  • to provide PhD students in advanced stages with an opportunity to present their plans and early results;
  • to provide all participant students with advice and suggestions from a panel of senior researchers;
  • to facilitate interaction among all the participants.
Following the time-honoured tradition of REFSQ, the Symposium will revolve around structured presentations and matching discussions, with ample time devoted to comments from the floor. A number of senior researchers will attend the event. The Doctoral Symposium will host keynote speaker(s) to be announced.

The Call for Doctoral Symposium can be downloaded here.

Submission Instructions

Presenters should have set on a dissertation topic in the general area of RE, or in a related field (in which case your topic should have a significant component of RE). Typically, you have progressed beyond your first year in the program, or are close to doing so, but have not submitted your thesis yet. To apply to the Doctoral Symposium, you will need to submit an application consisting of:


  • A Research Abstract (max 6 pages + 1 for references, LNCS style) describing the problem you are addressing (what is unsatisfactory in the current state of the world?), its relevance (why would anyone care if the problem was solved?), your proposed solution (how do you plan to attack the problem?), the novelty of the problem, of the solution, or both (nobody identified the problem or provided the solution before you – i.e., what is your original contribution), the research method you are applying (which method are you following to get to the solution, and how do you prove it solves the problem?), and the progress in your research (where are you, how long to the final destination?). The Research Abstract should contain a short survey and pointers to relevant literature.
  • A Letter of Recommendation from your primary supervisor or advisor. The letter need not discuss the research (which is already covered in your abstract) but should include a short statement about your position as a PhD student, the starting and expected completion date of your PhD, and an assessment of the current state of your research (including expectations about the final delivery).

Submissions will be evaluated based on the quality of the Research Abstract, and of the interest of the research described therein. Accepted papers will be published in CEUR proceedings. Submission link https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=refsq2017 Doctoral Symposium Track.

Important Dates

  Submission Deadline (Research abstract + Letter of recommendation)

  January 9th, 2017   Extended:  January 15th, 2017 

  Notification of Acceptance   January 27th, 2017 
  Camera-ready copy Deadline   February 10th, 2017 
  REFSQ2017 Doctoral Symposium
  February 27th, 2017 

Symposium Chairs

Jennifer Horkoff - City University London, UK, jenho@chalmers.se

Jolita Ralyté - University of Geneva, Switzerland, jolita.ralyte@unige.ch

Panel of Experts

Daniel M. Berry, University of Waterloo, Canada

Sjaak Brinkkemper, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Maya Daneva, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Erik Kamsties, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany

Oscar Pastor, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain