Menu

Individual skill

fse-topic-selection

0upvotes

Use when deciding whether a software-engineering project belongs at ESEC/FSE or should be routed to ICSE, ASE, ISSTA, MSR, ICSME, or an SE journal (EMSE/TSE/TOSEM), and when distinguishing FSE from its sibling general-SE flagship ICSE by contribution shape, evidence maturity, and the PACMSE journal-style fit.

FSE-Skills/skills/fse-topic-selection/SKILL.md

Read pinned source

Source commit 932eb23331721b16e967c59f093781be1928b498

What was checked

Matches the observed repository HEAD
Yes
Scanner rules are current
Yes
Repository scan complete
No
Skill scan complete
Yes
Observed behavior
Network or broad shell
Last checked
Nov 9, 2026

These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.

Install this skill

Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.

An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.

Repository context

Repository stars (not skill ratings)
1,405
Repository last updated
Sep 27, 2026
License
MIT

Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.

Files and excerpt

File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.

Browse files
Read excerpt

# FSE Topic Selection

Decide the venue before drafting. FSE — the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of
Software Engineering, historically **ESEC/FSE** on its European rotation — is one of the *two*
general software-engineering flagships, alongside ICSE, and the ACM SIGSOFT home for foundational
and empirical SE. Its research papers are PACMSE journal articles, so reviewers read for a
**durable software-engineering contribution**, not a one-conference result. A technically strong
paper whose real lesson is about compilers, PL semantics, or pure ML is respected and then
rejected as out of scope.

## The routing question that matters most

FSE and ICSE overlap heavily in scope and reviewer pool, so the decisive question is rarely "is
this SE?" but **"which SE community and calendar fits this paper now?"** Both welcome techniques,
Back to top