Visit the journal's proposal guidelines to submit a proposal for a special issue (original contributions on a topic within the scope of the journal) or a special section with extended papers from a conference of workshop within the scope of the journal.

Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal's scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: 

• Software management, quality and metrics,
• Software processes,
• Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming
• Functional and non-functional software requirements
• Software testing and verification & validation
• Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information.

The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering. Guidelines for conducting systematic reviews are provided here.

Special Issue on Engineering GenAI-enabled Software Systems
Submission Date: 2025-10-31

Guest editors:

He (Jason) Zhang,
Professor
Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Shang Gao,
Associate Professor
Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

Xiaofeng Wang,
Associate Professor
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy

Special issue information:

In the last couple of years, Generative AI (GenAI), represented by Large Language Models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, is undoubtedly the center of attention for every profession and research community. Software Engineering is no exception, and arguably one of the most affected areas in terms of research and practice. Current debates and future predictions are mainly focused on how Generative AI technologies and tools will disrupt and reshape various software engineering activities, processes and the roles of human agents. The other direction, that is, how existing and future Software Engineering practices and tools could contribute to the development of GenAI-enabled software systems, received relatively less attention. With GenAI being an increasingly important and integral part or even infrastructure of software-intensive systems, there is an imperative need to fill this knowledge gap.

In this special issue, we intend to address (not limited to) the following aspects and concerns that have both research and practical significance:

    What are the unique characteristics of GenAI-enabled software systems?
    What are the quality attributes and concerns of engineering GenAI-enabled software systems?
    What are the unique opportunities and challenges in the development of such software systems?
    How to architect and design GenAI-enabled software systems?
    What are the architectural patterns of GenAI-native applications?
    How to construct infrastructure for GenAI-native applications?
    How to develop GenAI-enabled software systems in an agile and lean manner?
        Are current Agile and Lean methods still applicable? If not, how to adapt them to be suitable for developing GenAI-enabled software systems?
    How can software engineering processes, practices and tools support the secure development of GenAI-enabled software systems?
        How can current/adapted software engineering practices and tools ensure compliance with information security policies in the development of GenAI-enabled software systems?
        How requirement engineering practices and methods can be used to identify and mitigate security risks in the development of GenAI-enabled software systems?
    How can software engineering practices be (re-)designed or adapted to ensure GenAI-enabled software systems adhere to ethical principles, such as accountability, and transparency?
    How to evaluate and ensure the compliance of GenAI-enabled software systems with regulations and governance?
    How can human-centric design principles be effectively integrated into the development of GenAI-enabled software systems to address the diverse needs of end users?
    How to operate GenAI-enabled software systems?
    How to manipulate and manage the data required in developing and operating GenAI-enabled software systems?