Special Theme: Trustworthy and Ethical Systems via Requirements Engineering

These days, we face many challenges in information systems and software engineering, motivated by continuous and rapid developments in AI. In our view, this evolution is unstoppable, and we must make the world ready for it. However, as usual, technology evolves before the methods are crafted to develop them. The Requirements Engineering community is, however, very attentive and keeps up with the trends and needs of this society. REFSQ is one of the conferences responsible for that, and this year, we want to continue this tradition by proposing the Trustworthy and Ethical Systems via Requirements Engineering special theme. We cannot expect novel systems to lead to trustworthy and ethical results if we do not endow requirements engineers, system designers, and developers with proper approaches focusing on trust and ethics since the early stages of the development cycle. Thus, we hereby solicit contributions in this direction, emphasizing the following aspects:

– Correctness and ethics should go hand in hand with Requirements, elicitation, analysis, negotiation, monitoring, and assessment.
– Trust is paramount to creating a society that relies on machines for crucial processes and aspects of people’s lives.
– Providing people with trustworthy, ethical, and ready information about novel technology to let them choose if and how to use it is at the essence of a safe and happy world.

Submission Possibilities:
REFSQ 2026 welcomes submissions for:
– Research Papers
https://2026.refsq.org/track/refsq-2026-research-papers
– Workshop Proposals
https://2026.refsq.org/track/refsq-2026-workshops
– Posters and Tools
https://2026.refsq.org/track/refsq-2026-posters—tools
– Education and Training
https://2026.refsq.org/track/refsq-2026-education—training

Check also the Open Science Policy:
https://2026.refsq.org/track/refsq-2026-open-science

📅 Important Dates (all dates are AoE (UTC-12h)):
– Workshop Proposals: Oct 6th 2025
– Paper submissions for Research track: Oct 10th 2025
– Paper submissions for Education and Training: Jan 6th 2026
– Paper submission for Posters & Tools: Jan 19th 2026

Organization

Local Chair
Sylwia Kopczyńska, Poznan University of Technology, Poland

Research Track PC Co-Chairs
Renata Guizzardi, University of Twente, The Netherlands
João Araújo, NOVA LINCS, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal