Frequently asked Questions (FAQ)

ICSE organizers are being sent many requests from many people. To reduce our email burden, we are answering as many questions as possible below. If you do not get a response, it is simply because the answer is here. Our incoming email volume is too high to answer questions that are already clearly answered.

Please also read the other pages in the ‘Attending’ and ‘Program’ menu thoroughly, as well as any emails sent to you from the conference, before asking additional questions. If you are convinced your question does not have an anwer yet, then please send it to uOttawa CPD cpd@uottawa.ca

What is the Conference Schedule?

Q: I am involved in various aspects of the conference and need to know when and where my sessions will be. Where is this information and when will it be available?

A: The schedule is being made available gradually as details are entered into the system. Full details should be available by Mid March, but for some workshops and co-located events it may not not be until early April.

Take a look at the Program menu. The ‘ICSE Program’ will eventually have full details of all events. This will be subject to minor changes as errors or conflicts are resolved, so check back if timing is critical.

For the main conference (Wednesday to Friday) there is a temporary schedule posted

The program overview will also give you a picture of the events in the conference as a whole. For meetings and social events there are various other menus items where these are listed.

if you are presenting a poster at the main conference, you will be contacted separately regarding when you are expected to be at your poster

Presentation Schedule Change Request Due to Conflict

Q: What do I do if I am scheduled to present two papers at the same time, or nearly so?

A: With 4000 authors, 1200 papers, 2000 attendees, and over 200 sessions over 7 days, scheduling this conference and its co-located events is an immense undertaking. This is especially the case since there are so many people presenting multiple papers (70% of papers have at least one co-author who is also presenting another paper). Another complexity is trying to ensure that similarly-themed papers have been kept together in the same session.

So conflicts are inevitable and we know that a few exist. We have done our best to reduce them. As software people we all recognize the intractability of the problem in extreme cases.

Firstly, try to arrange for a co-author to present one or more of your conflicting papers.

If a co-author cannot present and there is a conflict where you are scheduled to present two papers at almost exactly the same time, then we may be able to shuffle papers within the same 1.5h session (e.g. move a presentation by 30 minutes later or earlier). Contact your track chairs and point out the problem. Bear in mind that this may then put other shuffled presenters into a conflict, we we will have to check with them.

However if you are scheduled to present with more than 15 minutes between the end of one presentation and the start of another, then you may simply have to exit one room so you can go and present in another room. We ask the session chairs to maintain precise timing so this should be possible.

Presentation Schedule Change Request for Personal Reasons

Q: I have a personal reason (booked flight, appointment, meeting) for needing to leave the conference early or arrive late. Can you move my presentation to accommodate this?

A: In general as of March it is too late for that (see the above answer). We accommodated a few requests sent to us in December and January.

It may be possible until the end of March to make scheduled changes in some of the smaller workshops or co-located conferences. Contact their organizers. However the AV team needs to know the precise schedule in April, so very late changes even in small workshops may not be possible.

Visa Denial

Q: What do I do I am supposed to present my paper but my visa is denied?

A: If you are an author of a paper, and no other co-author can attend, we ask you to first appeal or re-apply. There may still be time for this if it is not yet April, although it will be too late if it is already April. Make sure in your appeal or re-application that you include your letter of invitation that you paid for when you registered, and add the code that was included in your letter of invitation in the correct field.

Secondly: If it is early April, or your second application or appeal has been denied, then you need to do the following: Send a request for a virtual presentation (see the instructions in the question below). In your request send screenshots of the evidence that you applied in a timely manner, and that you appealed, and that your visa was still denied. The track chairs will assess whether a virtual presentation is warranted based on whether they believe you have done your best to get a visa.

Note that visa problems getting back into your country of origin also count in the above. In that case we still ask that you formally applied for permission to exit and return.

Virtual Presentation

Q: Can I do a virtual presentation instead of attending in person?

A: If you are an author at ICSE 2025, attendance is considered mandatory unless it proves absolutely impossible. This is intended to be an in-person-only conference to maximize the sharing of ideas, and foster collaboration.

However, we are willing to grant virtual presentations to a tiny fraction of attendees in one of the following categories, if at least one of these apples to all co-authors:

• Medical reason (including pregnancy, mental health, care of a dependent with a medical reason where there is no other caregiver). You do not need to give the reason; this will be on the honour system

• Visa Denial (see the above question for the evidence you need to provide)

• Other compassionate reason making attendance impossible: Please explain.

We will not accept reasons such as teaching, administrative tasks at your institution, lack of funds, and so on as reasons to give a virtual presentation. In these circumstances you would have to either have a co-author make your presentation or else request that your paper be withdrawn from publication. See the Cancellation and Refund Policy

If you have one of the above categories of reasons that make attendance in person impossible, and cannot send a co-author, then send your request for a virtual presentation to the chair(s) of your track(s) (e.g. Research Track, SEIP, SEIS, NEIR, JF, Demos, co-located conference, workshop etc.). They have been given instructions to make a decision based on a set of rules they have been given. If they approve your request, then they will notify you and will pass your information (paper ids, paper title, your name, your email, and the evidence) to a committee member who is managing all this data.

In April, those who are approved after following the above process will be contacted to give a virtual presentation on Zoom.

If your request is not approved, your paper be withdrawn from the proceedings unless a co-author can present it instead.

Please understand that too many virtual presentations have very negative consequences: They damage the quality of the conference for others, and foster resentment among people who have spend a lot of time and effort to attend in person.

Request to Volunteer

Q: How can I volunteer to help at ICSE 2025, such as being a reviewer or on an organizing committee?

A: We continually get requests from people who would like to help out in some way with ICSE 2025. People ask to be a reviewer, or a ‘judge’ and similar roles.

Thanks, but we have enough people and it is far too late for that.

The Program Committee and most roles on the organizing committee were set up in 2023 (so well over a year before the conference). The call for student volunteers went out in November 2024 and the list of student volunteers is finalized. Please visit the 2026 website and contact their organizers. They have a form you can fill out to ask them questions.

And look out in the SIGSoft SEWorld email list for calls to help with ICSE 2027.

Hotel Rooms Full

Q: I searched for a hotel near the Rogers Centre and they all appear full. What should I do?

A: Indeed, most hotels have entirely set aside all remaining space for ICSE 2025, so a search on the web or at a travel agent will find them to be full.

However, if it is not yet March 25th, then there is still plenty of space in the ICSE 2025 reserved hotel room blocks. You need to click on one of the links provided in your registration email (not on a public or travel-agent link to a hotel). The links in the registration email you were sent will allow you to book a reserved room.

The rooms reserved for ICSE in various run out between March 15th and 25th. If you are looking for a hotel later than this, you may have to book a hotel much further away in the city, which could mean a 30-60 minute commute each day. So book early!

Switching to or from Poster to an Audience Presentation

Q: I have been scheduled to do a standard presentation but prefer to present a poster (or vice versa); can I ask for such a change?

A: As of March 1 it is too late to make this change in the main conference.

To make this change in a co-located conference or workshop, you need to contact the chair of your session. There are a limited number of presentation slots and poster boards, so it may not be possible to make such a change

If you are presenting in the main conference an email was sent to every author asking them to indicate if they preferred to present a poster or a standard presentation to an audience. We received the responses in Mid-February and then set up the schedule.

Merging Profiles

Q: ICSE 2025 has created a new account and profile for me on the ICSE 2025 website that is different from the one I had at another conference. What can I do about that?

Author profiles on this website are set up based on the email address on your paper. If your paper has a different email address (even a very slight difference) than the one you have used previously, or in other conferences that also use the researchr domain, then you will end up with multiple profiles. There is nothing we can do about this.

To merge profiles, you need to make your request here:

https://conf.researchr.org/support

and click on “My question is about the conf.researchr.org platform”

Please do not ask ICSE 2025 organizers about this.

Invitation Letter to get a Visa

A: I need an invitation letter to apply for a visa, what do I do?

A: You can only obtain such a letter if you are the author of a paper or are on the organizing committee, or have certain other approved roles such as being given an award or attending a business meeting (in the latter cases ask the person who notified you of the award or who is organizing the meeting to contact the registration desk at uOttawa CPD cpd@uottawa.ca

Additionally, you need to register for the conference and pay a $25 fee. It is expensive to produce these letters as they need to be validated manually and it is important that they only be ordered by people who truly need them.

A few people have asked us fr information to put in their visa application form, such as the inviter’s name, and email address. That information is in the invitation letter, so if you are asking for this information you clearly have not obtained your letter. So contact CPD cpd@uottawa.ca to update your registration and obtain the letter! Then you have the answer to this.

Change Registration

Q: I registered for the conference but now I need to add, delete or change some aspect of my registration. How do I do this?

A: As of March 1st, the only way to change your registration is to contact the registration desk at uOttawa CPD cpd@uottawa.ca