Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): New theories in software engineering Groundbreaking extensions to existing theories Groundbreaking synthesis of existing theories Novel applications of theories from reference disciplines (e.g. sociology) to software engineering Grounded theory, ethnography and qualitative approaches to theory building Systematic literature reviews leading toward or generating insight into general theories Empirical evaluation of general theories Software engineering process theories Research methodologies for general theory evaluation Addressing core question for a general theory: How can a general theory of software engineering be of practical use? What core phenomena should it explain? What questions should it address? What should its main concepts be? How are they related? How should it be expressed? How can it be tested? How can it gain acceptance throughout both the academic community and industry? Contrarian perspectives on software engineering theory Possible Contributions include (but are not limited to): Theory proposals with conceptual evaluations Theory building empirical field studies including grounded theory, case studies and ethnography Theory building, explorative lab studies, experiments and simulations Empirical evaluations of general, central or core theories (any research approach welcome) Systematic literature reviews Conceptual contributions related to research methodology Position papers on general theory topics