Call Workshop iRESEARCH

3rd Workshop on Empirical Methodologies for Research in Enterprise Architecture and Service/Data-oriented Computing

Call for Contributions

The objective iRESEARCH is to increase the cross- fertilization of ESE methods on one side, and Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Service-oriented Computing (SOC) and Data Science (DS) on the other side, by actively encouraging the exchange of ideas to understand why and how the empirical methods from ESE can help to assess and improve existing or new approaches in EA, SOC and DS.
The targeted outcomes of this workshop include the identification of open research problems and the possible solutions to these problems, regarding:

  • Evaluation and comparison of EA and service-oriented methods, processes and tools in context;
  • Emerging research methods;
  • New and unexpected forms of collaboration with industrial partners in empirical research and data science projects;
  • Evaluation of transferability of empirical results to practice.

The workshop topics include all those concerns related to the application of empirical research methods in EA, SOC and DS. In particular:

  • Design science and action research as methods for doing research with practitioners and for practitioners;
  • Emerging research methods, e.g. leveraging data- centric intelligent systems;
  • Surveys on state-of-the-art EA practices in industry;
  • Systematic reviews and mapping studies on EA, SOC and DS phenomena;
  • Qualitative studies: case studies, focus groups, grounded theory, interview-based studies;
  • Different types of approaches to evaluate validity of results of EA and SOC research;
  • Experimental designs for empirical studies; frameworks and infrastructures for carrying out empirical studies;
  • Lessons learned from empirical research in industry-university collaboration settings;
  • Frameworks for comparative evaluations;
  • Data science from empirical design science perspective
  • Identification of strengths and weaknesses of empirical and comparative evaluation approaches.
  • Use of theories in EA, SOC, and DS research.

Submissions

  • Industry reports (max 4 pages). These are papers on problem statements or challenges encountered in real-life organizations or examples of successes/failures of empirical research in practice.
  • Position papers (max 4 pages). These are short papers that can be either (a) a paper on the position of the author/s on any of the topics within the scope of the workshop, or (b) an empirical research design that will be improved as a result of feedback from workshop participants, or (c) visionary papers exploiting new ideas about the contribution of the empirical methods. For instance, a position paper can propose new criteria to empirically assess EA methods and techniques, or it can introduce new areas for relevant empirical studies.
  • Research Design papers (max 4 pages). Short papers (e.g., written by PhD students) presenting the experimentation/empirical design they performed/plan to perform during their research work.
  • Full technical papers (max 8 pages). Full papers that describe empirical experiences in EA, SOC, and DS and report the results of such experiences. For example, a full paper might describe how an architecture modeling approach has been evaluated in a real context or in a laboratory scenario, or how two modeling approaches have been compared in practice.

All papers submitted will be peer-reviewed by three members of the Program Committee. Acceptance will be primarily based on originality, contribution to the area, ability to generate discussion, quality of the paper and of the research, and research completeness. Research design papers will be reviewed, but more “helpfully” than “critically”. Only original papers not submitted to journals or other conferences will be considered.

Deadline for submissions: 14 July 2025

Publication

Revised versions of selected papers can be invited for a post-conference publication volume in the LNBIP series by Springer;

Organization

  • Chairs.
    • Faiza A. Bukhsh, University of Twente, the Netherlands
    • Maya Daneva, University of Twente, the Netherlands
    • Rob H. Bemthuis, University of Twente, the Netherlands