Submissions
AsianPLoP 2025
Call for Submissions
AsianPLoP is the Asian edition of the Pattern Languages of Programs conference (PLoP™), the premier event for pattern authors and enthusiasts to gather, discuss, and learn more about patterns, design, software development, and the built world in general. Writers’ Workshops offer authors the opportunity to improve their papers. Focus groups allow everyone, including newcomers, to learn about patterns and related topics.
Patterns and pattern languages have expanded to many areas including (but not limited to) art, well-being, learning, psychology, organizational development & change, sociology, and anthropology. AsianPLoP 2025 encourages a variety of submissions regardless of the areas they target.
AsianPLoP welcomes submissions written in English, Japanese, and Chinese. IEEE CPS will publish computing-related technical English papers at an additional fee paid by the authors at registration. All the other non-technical or non-English papers will be published as the Hillside proceedings series for AsianPLoP. All submissions should use the IEEE conference template for A4. Page limits for regular papers and short papers are 10 pages (with a maximum of four extra pages) and 4 pages (with a maximum of two extra pages), respectively. Japanese and Chinese papers should include an English abstract.
The topics include patterns and pattern languages related but are not limited to the following themes:
- Interacting with LLM
- AI-assisted programming
- AI-assisted software architecting/design
- Testing/verifying/validating LLM-based systems
- Architecture, design, and implementation
- Testing and verification
- Domain-driven Design
- Microservices
- Refactoring
- Agile development
- Security
- DevOps
- Education, collaboration, and interdisciplinary topics
Authors of computing-related technical papers accepted by AsianPLoP 2025 written in English and on topics of patterns for AI and software are welcome to submit their expanded work to the special issue on Artificial Intelligence and Patterns of the Journal of Information Science and Engineering (SCIE indexed) after the conference.
We are looking forward to receiving your submissions and meeting you!
There are two types of submissions:
AsianPLoP does not have funding for travel, registration, and lodging. All attendees are responsible for these costs.
FOCUS GROUPS SUBMISSIONS
We welcome proposals for hour-long presentations that will get us all thinking. Focus groups bring together people interested in exploring a topic.
Some focus groups will have their own time slot while others will run concurrently with writers’ workshops. So, there will always be a variety of options for all attendees throughout the conference.
Reports from any of these sessions may be included in the conference proceedings (subject to review).
PAPER SUBMISSIONS
We welcome papers describing patterns and pattern languages, experience reports, essays, empirical evaluations, reflections, etc. After the initial screening by the program committee, you will get the opportunity to improve your paper under the guidance of a dedicated shepherd. If your paper is accepted at the conference, it will be discussed in a writers’ workshop session with other authors and participants. Based on what you learn at writers’ workshops, you will make final improvements to your paper after the conference and submit it for the proceedings.
To enable the paper content to benefit from the shepherding process and the writers’ workshop discussions, please be mindful of the number of pages in your submission. You want to create a paper that allows your shepherd and the writers’ workshop attendees to digest the material and provide meaningful feedback.
If you have any questions about paper submissions, contact the program chairs.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Paper Submission & Review Process
The papers submitted at AsianPLoP are discussed in Writers’ Workshops, where authors work together to improve their papers. Before papers are accepted for a Writers’ Workshop, they are shepherded. Shepherding is an iterative process, in which an experienced author discusses a submission with an author to refine a paper prior to the conference. All paper submissions are peer-reviewed after shepherding.
There is a three stage paper submission process for the conference:
1
Step 1
Submissions are assessed for suitability and quality by the program committee.
See examples of past Accepted Submissions.
2
Step 2
Each paper found suitable is assigned a shepherd, an experienced (pattern) writer, who helps the author improve the paper. Each paper is also assigned one program committee member to supervise shepherding.
Shepherding involves several iterations, each producing a revision of the paper. Each author and shepherd decide the extent of revision.
3
Step 3
After shepherding, each paper is assessed once more by the program committee members and program chairs. The decision to accept a paper takes into account the willingness of the author to consider the comments they received from their shepherd (as reported by the shepherd and program committee member who supervised shepherding).
Writers’ Workshops
At the conference, the papers are discussed in writers’ workshops with groups of paper authors and possibly other conference participants. Authors are expected to take into account comments they received in the writers’ workshops to improve their papers.
At least one of the authors of accepted papers is expected to register for the conference. Failure to do so will result in acceptance being withdrawn.
For more information, view A Pattern Language for Writers’ Workshops by Richard Gabriel.
Shepherding Process
Shepherding is a revision process. Shepherds are experienced writers of patterns, essays, and other pattern-related papers. Each author of a submitted paper is assigned a shepherd who helps the author revise and improve the paper. All shepherds have experience with the shepherding process, either having been a shepherd before or having been helped by a shepherd.
Shepherding is about improving the manuscript. A shepherd can provide detailed reviews, make suggestions for both major and minor improvements, copyedit, or even provide draft material—it all depends on how the author and shepherd decide to work together. Shepherding is done before a paper is peer reviewed by the program committee.
Near the end of the shepherding, shepherds submit their recommendations to the Program Committee, which then decides whether it is accepted to a writers’ workshop of the conference. After a paper has been accepted, its author and shepherd can continue revising the paper to produce the conference draft version.
Richard Gabriel has written a guide to shepherding.
We are looking forward to your submission and meeting you at Taichung, Taiwan.
Welcome to AsianPLoP 2025!
On behalf of PLoP 2025 Program Chairs
Ching-Sheng Lin & Norihiko Kimura