acm-sigsoft-international-symposium-on-software-testing-and-analysis - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: acm-sigsoft-international-symposium-on-software-testing-and-analysis description: Use when targeting ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) or deciding whether a computer-science manuscript fits this venue. Encodes conference fit, framing, evidence bar, submission-cycle checks, rebuttal posture, and desk-reject risks for software testing.

ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA)

Conference positioning

ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) is a top computer-science conference venue for software testing, analysis, fuzzing, verification, debugging, and program repair. It rewards a testing/analysis paper with clear fault model and strong benchmark or real-project evidence. Treat this skill as a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool for conference submission strategy, not as a substitute for the current year's CFP, author kit, ethics policy, or submission portal.

Because CS conferences change deadlines, templates, page limits, review workflow, artifact rules, AI-use policy, and rebuttal formats every cycle, always verify the live official instructions before making a submission-ready recommendation. Start from the official source anchor recorded for this venue in ../../resources/conference-roster.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md.

When to trigger

The author names ISSTA / ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis as the target venue.
A manuscript in software testing needs a conference-fit read before being formatted or submitted.
The paper must be re-framed from journal style or arXiv style into a selective CS conference narrative.
The author needs an evidence-gap, anonymity, artifact, rebuttal, or re-routing diagnosis for this venue.

Scope & topic fit

Core fit: software testing, analysis, fuzzing, verification, debugging, and program repair.
Best submissions make a precise contribution type visible: algorithm, theorem, system, dataset, benchmark, empirical finding, design artifact, tool, or socio-technical analysis.
The paper should explain why the result matters to ISSTA's reviewers, not just why it is interesting to the authors' lab or product context.
Position related work against the most recent conference-cycle papers in this venue and its closest siblings; stale comparisons are a common early-review weakness.
If the contribution is interdisciplinary, state which part is CS research and which part is domain evidence.

Venue-specific calibration

Reviewer lens: Treat ISSTA as a software testing venue whose reviewers expect the scope and evidence to match its own community. Do not submit a generic CS paper until the introduction names the exact subcommunity, contribution type, and proof or empirical standard.
Contribution hook to foreground: the venue-specific contribution bar.
Scope vocabulary to use naturally in the abstract and introduction: software testing, analysis, fuzzing, verification, debugging, and program repair.
Distinctive fingerprint for reviewer calibration: software, testing, analysis, fuzzing, verification, debugging, program, repair, venue-specific, contribution, conf, researchr.
Official anchor domain: conf.researchr.org. Quote annual rules only after opening that source and the current-year CFP/author kit.

Close-neighbor routing guardrail

Route to ISSTA when the main claim is testing, program analysis, fault detection, fuzzing, test generation, verification for defects, or empirical evidence about software quality.
Do not use ISSTA for every SE tool paper. SANER/ICSME fit evolution and maintenance; ASE fits automation breadth; ICSE/FSE fit broad SE contributions.

ISSTA-specific routing detail

Prefer ISSTA when the main contribution is software testing or analysis: test generation, bug finding, static/dynamic analysis, verification for software defects, fuzzing, or debugging.
Route software evolution and maintenance studies to SANER/ICSME, general automated SE to ASE, and flagship SE work to ICSE/FSE when testing/analysis is not central.
ISSTA evidence should include benchmark or repository realism, defect model, tool precision/recall or effectiveness, comparison to mature testing/analysis tools, and failure cases.

Method & evidence bar

Use real programs, benchmarks, proofs, developer studies, or artifacts matched to the contribution type.
For tools, report usability, scalability, false positives/negatives, and reproducible artifact details.
For theory, provide precise definitions and complete proofs; for empirical SE, foreground validity threats.
For ISSTA, the evidence must support the venue-specific signature: a testing/analysis paper with clear fault model and strong benchmark or real-project evidence.
Include limitations, negative results, compute/resource reporting, data provenance, and ethics details when they affect the claim.

Structure & house style

State the software-engineering or language problem in terms of developer, program, proof, or runtime consequence.
Keep examples small but nontrivial, then scale evidence to realistic code or formal benchmarks.
Use the current official template exactly; do not guess page limits, font sizes, supplement rules, anonymity exceptions, or camera-ready requirements from old cycles.
The introduction should answer: problem, why now, what is new, why this venue, and what evidence proves the claim.
Put the strongest result in the main paper, not only in the appendix or supplement; reviewers should not have to reconstruct the contribution.

Official-cycle checklist

Open the live official venue page: https://conf.researchr.org/series/issta
Re-check the current cycle's CFP, author kit, submission system, abstract/paper deadlines, page limits, supplementary-material rules, anonymity policy, dual-submission policy, ethics policy, AI-use policy, artifact/code/data expectations, rebuttal/author-response format, and camera-ready requirements.
Confirm the review workflow and portal: OpenReview / CMT / HotCRP / PCS / START or society portal, as specified for the current cycle.
Check whether accepted papers require in-person presentation, separate registration, artifact badges, proceedings copyright, or post-acceptance release forms.
If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

One sentence states why this manuscript belongs at ISSTA, using the venue's scope rather than generic "top conference" language.
The claim is calibrated to the evidence: no broader than the datasets, proofs, systems, user studies, deployments, or threat model support.
Related work includes the nearest current-cycle software testing papers and explains the technical delta.
The paper satisfies the current official template, anonymity, ethics, artifact, and rebuttal requirements.
The main paper is self-contained enough for reviewers to evaluate novelty and correctness without hunting through external links.

Common desk-reject triggers

Toy examples with no evidence on real programs or benchmarks.
Tool paper without artifact clarity or comparison to current systems.
Empirical claims without validity analysis or reproducible data pipeline.
Formatting, anonymity, dual-submission, external-link, or supplement violations under the current-year policy.
A contribution framed for a neighboring field while giving ISSTA reviewers too little technical or empirical substance.

Re-routing decision

If the paper misses ISSTA's bar, compare against international-conference-on-software-engineering / acm-international-conference-on-the-foundations-of-software-engineering / ieee-acm-international-conference-on-automated-software-engineering / acm-sigplan-conference-on-programming-language-design-and-implementation. Re-route based on contribution type, not prestige: theory to a theory venue, systems to a systems venue, application-heavy work to a domain venue, and early ideas to workshops or shorter tracks when the official CFP supports them.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA)
[Contribution type] algorithm / theory / system / dataset / benchmark / empirical / design / security / other
[Main evidence gap] <single most important missing proof, experiment, study, artifact, or policy check>
[Official items to re-check] CFP / author kit / deadline / format / anonymity / ethics / AI-use / artifact / rebuttal / camera-ready
[Top rejection risk] <venue-specific risk>
[Re-route suggestion] <better-matched conference or journal if not a fit>