Junior PCMSR 2025

Call for MSR Junior PC 2025

MSR Junior PC Training 2025 by Professor Alexander Serebrenik

Following two successful editions of the MSR Shadow PC in 2021 and 2022 (see also this paper or this presentation for more context), and MSR Junior PC 2023 and 2024, MSR Junior PC 2025 will continue to integrate the junior MSR PC members into the main technical track program committee!

Goal: The main goal remains unchanged: to train the next generation of MSR (and, more broadly, SE) reviewers and program committee members, in response to a widely-recognized challenge of scaling peer review capacity as the research community and volume of submissions grows over time.

Target: Similar to the previous MSR Junior PC, the primary audience for the Junior PC is early-career researchers (PhD students, postdocs, new faculty members, and industry practitioners) who are keen to get more involved in the academic peer-review process but have not yet served on a technical research track program committee at international SE conferences (e.g., ICSE, ESEC/FSE, ASE, MSR, ICSME, SANER).

New for 2025: Unlike the MSR Junior PC review processes in 2023 and 2024, which involved 3 regular PCs and 2 junior PCs, MSR 2025 will shift to a model of 2 regular PCs and 1 junior PC. This approach aligns with other conferences, where typically 3 PCs review each paper. The changes are driven by the following reasons:

1. Reducing Review Workload: The previous model, requiring 5 PCs per paper, placed a substantial review burden on both junior and regular PCs, potentially compromising the quality of the reviews due to the tight 1-month schedule of MSR. By reducing the number of PCs from 3+2 to 2+1, the review workload for each PC will be lowered, thereby expecting to enhance the quality of the reviews.

2. Improving Authors’ Responses: MSR provides an author response period to allow authors to clarify their submissions. Previously, with 5 PCs per paper, authors struggled to produce high-quality responses within the 750-word limit. The reduction to 3 PCs (2 regular, 1 junior) will likely help authors craft more effective and manageable responses within the word limit.

This change is expected to provide substantial benefits to authors, Junior PCs, and Regular PCs. Nevertheless, the Junior PC co-chairs will ensure that the quality of the feedback will not be compromised. Junior PC members will receive training from senior researchers and/or past MSR distinguished reviewers on how to write and provide constructive review for software engineering papers, what to look for, what to avoid, and the suggested review structure aligned with the MSR review criteria. They will also receive guidance from MSR (Junior) PC Co-Chairs on the expected review quality, confidentiality, and ethics standards, how to write good reviews, and how to participate in discussions (see ACM reviewers’ responsibilities). Finally, Junior PC members will receive feedback on how to improve their reviews before the rebuttal notification (by the discussion lead). The discussion lead will perform quality assurance, ensuring the reviews are of high quality and remain constructive.

Review Process for MSR 2025: All submissions to the MSR research track will be reviewed jointly by both regular and junior PC members, as part of the same process. Junior PCs will then serve alongside regular PC members on the main technical track PC, participating fully in the review process, including author responses and PC discussions to reach consensus. Each paper will receive two reviews from two regular PC members and one review from a Junior PC member. The final decisions will be made by consensus among all reviewers, as always. Based on our experience with the MSR Shadow PC in 2021 and 2022 and MSR Junior PC in 2023 and 2024, we expect that the addition of a junior PC to each paper will increase the overall quality of reviews that the authors receive, since junior reviewers will typically have a deep understanding of recent topics, and can thus provide deep technical feedback on the subject.

Why Join the MSR Junior PC?

Serving on the Junior PC is an excellent opportunity for early-career researchers (PhD students, postdocs, new faculty members, industry practitioners, etc) to be recognized and gain experience in community service, i.e., being part of a major conference program committee. It is also worthwhile for a number of reasons, including:

• Seeing examples of actual reviews for the same papers, written by the regular PC members, gaining more experience as a reviewer and learning from the senior researchers how to write better reviews.
• Participating in the real process and having a share in the final outcome of the paper, increasing the motivation and engagement of the junior reviewers throughout the process.
• Getting to know how a PC is run and how it operates.
• Being mentored by experienced PC members.
• Gaining experience reviewing papers and understanding the challenges faced by reviewers reading multiple papers which may not always be in their area of expertise.
• Submitting high-quality reviews makes one a more likely candidate for future PCs of the technical track of MSR or otherwise.
• Getting to see both strong and weak papers at the submission stage.
• Discovering what it takes to publish a paper in a reputable conference, such as MSR.
• Having a chance to read top-notch papers in your area of expertise before they are published.

What is Required of MSR Junior PC Members?

Junior PC members must commit themselves to write their own detailed and rigorous reviews for papers assigned to them by the allotted deadline. This timely review commitment is essential to the good functioning of the Junior PC. Candidates who might be unable to fulfil their reviewing duties should refrain from applying. Junior PC members will be expected to review a load of 1-3 papers per member, submit on-time reviews, and participate in the online discussion of their assigned papers. Junior PC members must follow the ethical standards of peer review, respect the anonymity of the review process, not share which papers they have reviewed or solicit sub-reviews, and must not use Generative AI (new for 2025). Junior PC members who do not adhere to the ethical standards of peer-review will be excluded from the process.

Who Can Participate in the MSR Junior PC?

The Junior PC is open to PhD students, post-docs, new faculty members and industry practitioners experienced in software engineering or mining software repositories research, especially those who have not yet served in a program committee of the technical research track (or the main track) of the international SE conferences (e.g., ICSE, FSE, ASE, MSR, ICSME, SANER). We will select the Junior PC members based on research experience for joining the Junior PC. The Junior PC selection process will also strive to ensure diversity.

How to Apply?

If you are interested in participating, please complete the online application form (https://forms.gle/yze4nPZVFVMJ7exY6) for MSR 2025 Junior PC by September 15th, 2024 AoE.

mportant Dates

AoE: Anywhere on Earth

• Junior PC Self-Nomination Open: August 27th, 2024, AoE
• Junior PC Self-Nomination Deadline: September 15th, 2024 AoE
• Announcement of Junior PC members: October 1st, 2024 AoE