Designing and building a large, complex software system is a tremendous challenge. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) publishes papers on all aspects of that challenge: specification, design, development and maintenance. It covers tools and methodologies, languages, data structures, and algorithms. TOSEM also reports on successful efforts, noting practical lessons that can be scaled and transferred to other projects, and often looks at applications of innovative technologies. The tone is scholarly but readable; the content is worthy of study; the presentation is effective. 

Special Issue on Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Software
Día de Entrega: 2025-11-01

A special issue on Agentic AI in Software is planned in TOSEM in 2026, and papers are being solicited for this purpose. AI has had significant impact affecting various branches in Software Engineering (SE) including coding, testing, analysis, patching, documentation, and even design. Lately with the arrival of Large Language Model (LLM) agents, the discipline of SE has seen further shifts. The autonomous deployment of tools with LLM backends gives the agents tremendous power and potential in bringing greater automation to SE tasks. At the same time, greater automation in SE tasks does not immediately mean greater productivity gains. There exists a lot of concerns around trust in the output produced by agents and the amount of manual effort needed to integrate agent workflows into SE workflows. Further, a software engineer's creativity is not only from own thought but can be triggered by interactions among team members or from feedback given in a team meeting. 

This special issue will invite original research articles on automation due to agentic AI in software, as well as its impact on future software teams. Papers can be under various categories, including the following. Authors can mention one of these categories in the cover letter of the paper.

[Auto] Automation of SE tasks via agents
[Trust] Enhancing trust in agent outputs
[Integrate] Integration of agents into existing software workflows
[A-H] Agent – human interaction in SE teams and team dynamics
[Oth] Any other agent in SE topics not covered in the preceding list.

Please select the manuscript type “Special issue 2025: Agentic AI in Software” at the TOSEM submission site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tosem

During the submission, if the authors need to choose a broad area in the submission form, they can choose “AI and SE."
The submission timelines are planned as follows.

Nov 1, 2025: Paper submission deadline
Jan 31, 2025: First reviews appear
March 31, 2026: Revisions are due
May 2026: Outcome of the revised papers
July 2026: Papers appear online in ACM Digital Library
August 2026: Special issue on agentic AI in TOSEM is planned

Queries about the special issue can be directed to the following editors: 

Abhik Roychoudhury (Editor-in-Chief), Foutse Khomh (Guest Editor), Denys Poshyvanyk (Guest Editor).