The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of programming methodology, software engineering, and related hardware-software-systems issues. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, software development environments and tools, techniques for developing, validating, and maintaining software systems, software architecture and design, global software development, service orientation, agile approaches, mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, concurrent, and telecommunications systems, software metrics, reliability models for software, performance issues, and management concerns. The journal publishes research papers, state-of-the-art surveys, and reports of practical experience. All articles should consider the practical application of the idea advanced through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Occasionally, special issues are devoted to topics of particular interest; proposals for such issues are invited.

Special Issue on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems and Software Ecosystems
Submission Date: 2024-09-16

Guest editors:
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Prof. Antonia Bertolino, ISTI-CNR, Italy
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Dr. Francesca Lonetti, ISTI-CNR, Italy
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Dr. Pablo Antonino, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
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Dr. Doo-Hwan Bae, KAIST, South Korea
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Special issue information:
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Systems-of-Systems (SoS) and Software Ecosystems (SECO) attract growing interest. SoS refers to evolving software systems whose constituent systems (themselves systems in their own right) cooperatively work to fulfil a global mission that is beyond their individual scope. SECO consists of an ensemble of software solutions functioning as a unit and often sharing a common platform or market, thus connecting a community of users to a community of solution providers.
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The engineering of SoS and SECO faces similar challenges: in both fields, distributed resources and efforts are shared and combined with the aim of reducing costs of complex systems and reaching new Information Technology markets. The development of both systems is distributed among independent teams cooperating under different levels of mutual awareness and commitment. In either case technical aspects of software development become mixed with social issues. Further, when SoS and SECO are analysed together, Software Engineering-related problems and challenges are amplified and become even more critical.This special issue welcomes submissions addressing all technical aspects, challenges and social issues of SoS and SECO. On this theme, we will run in April the 12th Workshop on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems and Software Ecosystems (SESoS 2024), which will be associated with the 46th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024) in Lisbon, Portugal. The goal of the workshop series is to provide a forum in which researchers and practitioners can exchange ideas and experiences, analyse research and development issues, discuss promising solutions, and propose theoretical foundations for development and evolution of complex systems, inspiring visions for the future of software engineering for SoS and SECO, as well as paving the way for a more structured community effort.
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In this special issue we both invite extended versions of the best papers presented at SESoS 2024, and solicit novel submissions related to the theme. We are interested in challenges and trends for research and practice. Real-world experience reports and industrially-relevant methods and tools are welcome. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
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Manuscript submission information:
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Important Dates (tentative)
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Submission Open Date: May 20, 2024
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Submission Deadline: September 16, 2024
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First notification: December 11, 2024
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Revised submission: February 5, 2025
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Final notification: April 30, 2025
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