Contributions related to all aspects of modeling, modeling languages and model-driven engineering are cordially invited to the 21st edition of MODELS, in Copenhagen, Denmark 14.-19. October 2018.
MODELS is the premier conference series for model-driven software and systems engineering. Since 1998, MODELS has covered all aspects of modeling, from languages and methods, to tools and applications. Attendees of MODELS come from diverse backgrounds, including researchers, academics, engineers and industrial professionals. MODELS 2018 is a forum for participants to exchange cutting-edge research results and innovative practical experiences around modeling and model-driven software and systems. This year’s edition will provide an opportunity for the modeling community to further advance the foundations of modeling, and come up with innovative applications of modeling in emerging areas of cyber-physical systems, embedded systems, socio-technical systems, cloud computing, big data, security, open source, and sustainability. We invite you to join us at MODELS 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark and to help shape the modelling methods and technologies of the future!
We invite authors to submit high quality contributions describing significant, original, and unpublished results in the following categories:
Technical Papers: Technical papers should describe innovative research in modelling or model-driven engineering activities. Papers in this submission category should describe a novel contribution to the field and should carefully support claims of novelty with citations to the relevant literature.
Evaluation Criteria: Technical papers are evaluated on the basis of originality, soundness, relevance, importance of contribution, strength of validation, quality of presentation and appropriate comparison to related work. Where a submission builds upon previous work of the author(s), the novelty of the new contribution must be described clearly with respect to the previous work. Technical papers need to discuss clearly how the results were validated (e.g., formal proofs, controlled experiments, rigorous case studies, or simulations). Authors are strongly encouraged to make the artifacts used for the evaluation publicly accessible, e.g., through a Github repository or an alternative that is likely to remain available. There will be an artifact evaluation process, as discussed below.
New Ideas and Vision Papers: We solicit papers that present new ideas and visions. Such papers may describe new, non-conventional model-driven engineering research positions or approaches that depart from standard practice. They can describe well-defined research ideas that are at an early stage of investigation. They could also provide new evidence that common wisdom should be challenged, present new unifying theories about existing modeling research that provides novel insight or that can lead to the development of new technologies or approaches, or apply modeling technology to radically new application areas.
Evaluation Criteria: New ideas and vision papers will be assessed primarily on their level of originality and potential for impact on the field in terms of promoting innovative thinking. Hence, inadequacies in the state-of-the-art and the pertinence, correctness, and impact of the idea/vision must be described clearly, even though the new idea need not be fully worked out, and a fully detailed roadmap need not be presented.
The goal of this track is to fill the gap between foundational research in modeling and model-driven engineering and industrial needs. We invite authors from academia and industry to submit original contributions reporting on the innovative application of MDE in industrial, government, or open-source settings, as well as the development of innovative engineering solutions to enable the use of modeling in such contexts. Examples include:
Each paper should provide clear take-away value by describing the context of a problem of practical and industrial importance, and the application of modeling that leads to a solution.
Evaluation Criteria: A paper in the P&I Track will be evaluated mainly from its practical take-away, the potential impact of the findings. The paper should discuss why the solution to the problem is innovative, effective, or efficient and what likely practical impact it has or will have; it should provide a concise explanation of the approach, techniques, and methodologies employed; and explain the best practices that emerged, tools developed, and/or software processes involved. Studies reporting on negative findings must provide a thorough discussion of the potential causes of failure, and ideally a perspective on how to solve them.
MODELS 2018 seeks submissions on diverse topics related to modeling for software and systems engineering, including, but not limited to:
The submission and evaluation process for MODELS 2018 is similar to past MODELS conferences, with the specific details below.
Papers must be submitted electronically through the MODELS 2018 EasyChair submission web pages. The submission for Foundations and Practice & Innovation tracks can be found at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=models2018
All papers—“Foundations”, “Practice and Innovation” and “New Ideas/Vision”—must not exceed 10 pages (including figures and appendices, excluding references). All papers may include 1 additional page for references. All submissions must be in English. Submissions must adhere to the ACM formatting instructions (specifically the sigconf template), which can be found at:
https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template
Submissions that do not adhere to these limits or that violate the formatting guidelines will be desk-rejected without review. Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings published by ACM. Authors of best papers from the conference will be invited to revise and submit extended versions of the papers for publication in the Journal of Software and Systems Modeling.
Unlike previous years, the MODELS 2018 review process will use a single phase with no rebuttals. There will be an extended discussion phase monitored by one or two Program Board members assigned to each paper. The Program Chairs will also be heavily involved in monitoring discussions and reviews, to ensure that quality reviews are produced.
All papers that conform to the submission guidelines will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the Program Committee. The Program Board will monitor the reviews of papers assigned to them, to ensure that the reviews are constructive and sufficiently detailed so that authors can both improve their papers and understand the rationale behind final decisions. After reviews are completed, the Program Board will lead a discussion phase on papers assigned to them, in order to come up with recommendations. These recommendations will be discussed at the Program Board meeting, to be held in early July 2018, in order to come up with decisions on papers to be presented at the conference.
Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit their accompanying artifacts (e.g., software, datasets, proofs) to the Artifact Evaluation process. The Artifact Evaluation process is run by a separate committee whose task is to assess how the artifacts support the results presented in the papers. Participation in the Artifact Evaluation process is optional and does not affect the final decision regarding the papers. Papers that successfully go through the Artifact Evaluation process will be rewarded with a seal of approval printed on the paper themselves. The artifacts will be archived.
Foundation Track and Practice and Innovation Track have the following deadlines:
Please note that:
| Fri 27 April 2018 Abstract submission |
| Fri 4 May 2018 Paper submission |
| Thu 5 July 2018 Author notification |
| Sat 21 July 2018 Camera Ready Due |