SE Journals in 2036: Looking back at the future we need to have
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
In 2025, SE publishing faces an existential crisis of scalability. As our communities swell globally and integrate fast-moving methodologies like LLMs, traditional peer-review practices are collapsing under the strain. The "bureaucratic anomaly" of monolithic review has become mathematically unsustainable, creating a stochastic
"lottery" that punishes novelty and exhausts researchers.
This paper, written from the perspective of 2036, documents potential solutions. Here, the editors of ASE, EMSE, IST, JSS, TOSEM and TSE dream a collective dream of a brighter future. In summary first we stopped fighting (The Journal Alliance). Then we fixed the process (The Lottery / Unbundling / Fixing the Benchmark Graveyard). And then we fixed the culture (Cathedrals/Bazaars).
"lottery" that punishes novelty and exhausts researchers.
This paper, written from the perspective of 2036, documents potential solutions. Here, the editors of ASE, EMSE, IST, JSS, TOSEM and TSE dream a collective dream of a brighter future. In summary first we stopped fighting (The Journal Alliance). Then we fixed the process (The Lottery / Unbundling / Fixing the Benchmark Graveyard). And then we fixed the culture (Cathedrals/Bazaars).
Date Acceptance
2026-01-19
Publisher
ACM / IEEE
Copyright Statement
Copyright This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the author’s accepted manuscript will be made available under a CC-BY License in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy).
License URL
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source
ICSE 2026 - 48th International Conference on Software Engineering
Publication Status
Accepted
Start Date
2026-04-12
Finish Date
2026-04-18
Coverage Spatial
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil