[Caml-list] ICFP 2026: Call for Papers

[ICFP Publicity <icfp.publicity@googlemail.com>]

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ICFP 2026 Call for Papers

Accepted papers to be invited for presentation at:


*The 31st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming*August
23-29, 2026
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
https://icfp26.sigplan.org
------------------------------

Submission Information

   - *Submission web site*: https://icfp26.hotcrp.com
   - *Submission Deadline*: 19 Feb 2026 (AoE)

Double-blind review

   - Reviews: 20 Apr 2026 (AoE)
   - Author Response: 20 Apr 2026 - 23 Apr 2026 (AoE)
   - Notification of Conditional Acceptance: 14 May 2026 (AoE)
   - Revision: 3 Jun 2026 (AoE)
   - Final Notification: 10 Jun 2026 (AoE)
   - Camera Ready: 1 Jul 2026 (AoE)

------------------------------

PACMPL issue ICFP 2026 seeks original papers on the art and science of
functional programming. Submissions are invited on all topics from
principles to practice, from foundations to features, and from abstraction
to application. The scope includes all languages that encourage functional
programming, including both purely applicative and imperative languages, as
well as languages with objects, concurrency, or parallelism. Topics of
interest include (but are not limited to):

   -

   Language Design: concurrency, parallelism, and distribution; modularity;
   components and composition; meta-programming; macros; pattern matching;
   type systems; type inference; dependent types; effect types; gradual types;
   refinement types; session types; interoperability; domain-specific
   languages; imperative programming; object-oriented programming; logic
   programming; probabilistic programming; reactive programming; generic
   programming; bidirectional programming; secure programming.
   -

   Implementation: abstract machines; virtual machines; interpretation;
   compilation; compile-time and run-time optimisation; garbage collection and
   memory management; runtime systems; multi-threading; exploiting parallel
   hardware; interfaces to foreign functions, services, components, or
   low-level machine resources.
   -

   Software-Development Techniques: algorithms and data structures; design
   patterns; specification; verification; validation; proof assistants;
   debugging; testing; tracing; profiling; build systems; program synthesis.
   -

   Analysis and Transformation: control flow; data flow; abstract
   interpretation; partial evaluation; program calculation.
   -

   Foundations: formal semantics; lambda calculus; program equivalence;
   rewriting; type theory; logic; category theory; computational effects;
   continuations; control; state; names and binding; program verification.
   -

   Applications: symbolic computing; formal-methods tools; systems
   programming; distributed systems and web programming; hardware design;
   databases; scientific and numerical computing; graphical user interfaces;
   graphics and multimedia; GPU programming; scripting; system administration;
   security.
   -

   Education: teaching introductory programming; mathematical proof;
   algebra.

Submissions will be evaluated according to their relevance, correctness,
significance, originality, and clarity. Each submission should explain its
contributions in both general and technical terms, clearly identifying what
has been accomplished, explaining why it is significant, and comparing it
with previous work. The technical content should be accessible to a broad
audience.

PACMPL issue ICFP 2026 also welcomes submissions in two separate categories
— Functional Pearls and Experience Reports — that must be marked as such
when submitted and that *need not* report original research results.
Detailed guidelines on both categories are given at the end of this call.

In an effort to achieve a balanced, diverse program, each author may be
listed as a (co)author on a maximum of four submissions. Authors who
require financial support to attend the conference can apply for PAC
funding (http://www.sigplan.org/PAC/).

The General Chair and PC Chair may not submit papers. PC members (other
than the PC Chair) may submit papers.

Please contact the Program Chair if you have questions or are concerned
about the appropriateness of a topic.
Double-blind Submissions
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#double-bind-submissions>

ICFP 2026 will use a full double-blind reviewing process. This means that
identities of authors will not be made visible to reviewers until after
conditional-acceptance decisions have been made, and then only for the
conditionally-accepted papers. The use of full double-blind reviewing has
several consequences for authors.

   -

   Submissions: Authors must omit their names and institutions from their
   paper submissions. In addition, references to authors’ own prior work
   should be in the third person (e.g., not “We build on our previous work …”
   but rather “We build on the work of …”).
   -

   Supplementary material: Authors must fully anonymize any supplementary
   material (see below). Links to supplementary material on external websites
   are not permitted.
   -

   Author response: In responding to reviews, authors should not say
   anything that reveals their identity, since author identities will not be
   revealed to reviewers at that stage of the reviewing process.
   -

   Dissemination of work under submission: Authors are welcome to
   disseminate their ideas and post draft versions of their paper(s) on their
   personal website, institutional repository, or arXiv (reviewers will be
   asked to turn off arXiv notifications during the review period). But
   authors should not take steps that would almost certainly reveal their
   identities to members of the Program Committee, e.g., directly contacting
   PC members or publicizing the work on widely-visible social media or major
   mailing lists used by the community.

The purpose of the above restrictions is to help the Program Committee come
to a judgment about the paper without bias, not to make it impossible for
them to discover the authors’ identities if they were to try. In
particular, nothing should be done in the name of anonymity that weakens
the quality of the submission. However, there are occasionally cases where
adhering to the above restrictions is truly difficult or impossible for one
reason or another. In such cases, the authors should contact the Program
Chair to discuss the situation and how to handle it. The FAQ on
Double-Blind Reviewing (
https://popl24.sigplan.org/track/POPL-2024-popl-research-papers#FAQ-on-Double-Blind-Reviewing)
addresses many common scenarios and answers many common questions about
this topic. But there remain many grey areas and trade-offs. If you have
any doubts about how to interpret the double-blind rules or you encounter a
complex case that is not clearly covered by the FAQ, please contact the
Program Chair for guidance.
Preparation of submissions
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#preparation-of-submissions>

The deadline for submissions is: *** Thursay, 19 Feb 2026 AoE *** (
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aoe). This deadline will be strictly
enforced.

   -

   Formatting: Submissions must be in PDF format, printable in black and
   white on US Letter sized paper and interpretable by common PDF tools. All
   submissions must adhere to the “ACM Small” template that is available (in
   both LaTeX and Word formats) from
   https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions.

   Please download the latest version of the ACM style from
   https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions, since the citation
   format has recently been changed.

   See also PACMPL’s Information and Guidelines for Authors at
   https://pacmpl.acm.org/authors.cfm.

   There is a limit of *25 pages* for a full paper or Functional Pearl and *12
   pages* for an Experience Report; in either case, the bibliography and an
   optional clearly marked appendix will not be counted against these limits.
   Submissions that exceed the page limits or, for other reasons, do not meet
   the requirements for formatting, will be desk rejected.
   -

   Submission: Submissions will be accepted at https://icfp26.hotcrp.com

   Improved versions of a paper may be submitted at any point before the
   submission deadline using the same web interface.
   -

   Author Response Period: Authors will have a 96-hour period, starting at
   00:00 (midnight) AoE on Monday, 20 April, 2026, to read reviews and respond
   to them.
   -

   Appendix and Supplementary Material: Authors have the option to include
   a clearly marked appendix and/or to attach supplementary material to a
   submission, on the understanding that reviewers may choose not to look at
   such an appendix or supplementary material. Supplementary material may be
   uploaded as a separate PDF document or tarball. Any supplementary material
   must be uploaded at submission time, not by providing a URL in the paper
   that points to an external repository. All supplementary material must be
   anonymised.
   -

   Authorship Policies: All submissions are expected to comply with the ACM
   Policies for Authorship that are detailed at
   https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/information-for-authors.
   -

   Republication Policies: Each submission must adhere to SIGPLAN’s
   republication policy, as explained on the web at
   http://www.sigplan.org/Resources/Policies/Republication.

Review Process
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#review-process>

This section outlines the two-stage process with double-blind reviewing
that will be used to select papers for PACMPL issue ICFP 2026. Like last
year, ICFP 2026 will adapt a full double-blind reviewing process. More
information see below.

ICFP 2026 will have two Associate Chairs who will help the PC Chair monitor
reviews, solicit external expert reviews for submissions when there is not
enough expertise on the committee, and facilitate reviewer discussions.

ICFP 2026 will employ a two-stage review process. The first stage in the
review process will assess submitted papers using the criteria stated above
and will allow for feedback and input on initial reviews through the author
response period mentioned previously. As a result of the review process, a
set of papers will be conditionally accepted and all other papers will be
rejected. Authors will be notified of these decisions on 14 May, 2026.

Authors of conditionally accepted papers will be provided with committee
reviews along with a set of optional or mandatory revisions. By 3 June,
2026, the authors should provide a revised submission. The second and final
reviewing phase assesses whether the mandatory revisions have been
adequately addressed by the authors and thereby determines the final
accept/reject status of the paper. The intent and expectation is that the
mandatory revisions can feasibly be addressed within a couple of weeks.

The second submission should clearly identify how the mandatory revisions
were addressed. To that end, the second submission *must be accompanied by
a cover letter* mapping each mandatory revision request to specific parts
of the paper. The cover letter will facilitate a quick second review,
allowing for confirmation of final acceptance within two weeks. Conversely,
the absence of a cover letter will be grounds for the paper’s rejection.
Information for Authors of Accepted Papers
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#information-for-authors-of-accepted-papers>

As a condition of acceptance, final versions of all papers must adhere to
the ACM Small format. The page limit for the final versions of papers will
be *increased by two pages* to help authors respond to reviewer comments
and mandatory revisions: 27 pages plus bibliography for a regular paper or
Functional Pearl, 14 pages plus bibliography for an Experience Report.

Authors of accepted submissions will be required to agree to one of the
three ACM licensing options, one of which is Creative Commons CC-BY
publication; this is the option recommended by the PACMPL editorial board.
A reasoned argument in favour of this option can be found in the article
Why CC-BY? published by OASPA, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers
Association. The other options are copyright transfer to ACM or retaining
copyright but granting ACM exclusive publication rights.

PACMPL is a Gold Open Access journal, and authors are encouraged to publish
their work under a CC-BY license. Gold Open Access guarantees permanent
free online access to the definitive version in the ACM Digital Library,
and the recommended CC-BY option also allows anyone to copy and distribute
the work with attribution. Gold Open Access has been made possible by
generous funding through ACM SIGPLAN, which will cover all open access
costs in the event authors cannot. Authors who can cover the costs may do
so by paying an Article Processing Charge (APC). PACMPL, SIGPLAN, and ACM
Headquarters are committed to exploring routes to making Gold Open Access
publication both affordable and sustainable.

ACM Author-Izer is a unique service that enables ACM authors to generate
and post links on either their home page or institutional repository for
visitors to download the definitive version of their articles from the ACM
Digital Library at no charge. Downloads through Author-Izer links are
captured in official ACM statistics, improving the accuracy of usage and
impact measurements. Consistently linking to the definitive version of an
ACM article should reduce user confusion over article versioning. After an
article has been published and assigned to the appropriate ACM Author
Profile pages, authors should visit
http://www.acm.org/publications/acm-author-izer-service to learn how to
create links for free downloads from the ACM DL.

The official publication date is the date the journal is made available in
the ACM Digital Library. The journal issue and associated papers will be
published no earlier than 1 August, 2026. The official publication date
affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

Authors of each accepted submission are invited to attend and be available
for the presentation of that paper at the conference. The schedule for
presentations will be determined and shared with authors after the full
program has been selected.

ORCID: ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that
you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other
researcher: https://orcid.org/. ACM now require an ORCID iD for every
author of a paper, not just the corresponding author. So, the author who is
filling out the permission form should make sure they have the ORCID iDs
for all of their coauthors before filling out the form. Any authors who do
not yet have an ORCID iD can go to https://orcid.org/register to have one
assigned.

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby
acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM
Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research
Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this
policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may
result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential
penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.
Artifact Evaluation
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#artifact-evaluation>

Authors of papers that are conditionally accepted in the first phase of the
review process will be encouraged (but not required) to submit supporting
materials for Artifact Evaluation. These items will then be reviewed by an
Artifact Evaluation Committee, separate from the paper Review Committee,
whose task is to assess how the artifacts support the work described in the
associated paper. Papers that go through the Artifact Evaluation process
successfully will receive a seal of approval printed on the papers
themselves. Authors of accepted papers will be encouraged to make the
supporting materials publicly available upon publication of the papers, for
example, by including them as “source materials” in the ACM Digital
Library. An additional seal will mark papers whose artifacts are made
available, as outlined in the ACM guidelines for artifact badging.

Participation in Artifact Evaluation is voluntary and *will not influence* the
final decision regarding paper acceptance.
Special categories of papers
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#special-categories-of-papers>

In addition to research papers, PACMPL issue ICFP solicits two kinds of
papers that do not require original research contributions: Functional
Pearls, which are full papers, and Experience Reports, which are limited to
half the length of a full paper. Authors submitting such papers should
consider the following guidelines.
Functional Pearls
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#functional-pearls>

A Functional Pearl is an elegant essay about something related to
functional programming. Examples include, but are not limited to:

   - a new and thought-provoking way of looking at an old idea;
      - an instructive example of program calculation or proof;
      - a nifty presentation of an old or new data structure;
      - an interesting application of functional programming techniques;
      - a novel use or exposition of functional programming in the
      classroom.

While pearls often demonstrate an idea through the development of a short
program, there is no requirement or expectation that they do so. Thus, they
encompass the notions of theoretical and educational pearls.

Functional Pearls are valued as highly and judged as rigorously as ordinary
papers, but using somewhat different criteria. In particular, a pearl is
not required to report original research, but, it should be concise,
instructive, and entertaining. A pearl is likely to be rejected if its
readers get bored, if the material gets too complicated, if too
much-specialised knowledge is needed, or if the writing is inelegant. The
key to writing a good pearl is polishing.

A submission that is intended to be treated as a pearl must be marked as
such on the submission web page and should contain the words “Functional
Pearl” somewhere in its title or subtitle. These steps will alert reviewers
to use the appropriate evaluation criteria. Pearls will be combined with
ordinary papers for the purpose of computing the conference’s acceptance
rate.
Experience Reports
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#experience-reports>

The purpose of an Experience Report is to describe the experience of using
functional programming in practice, whether in industrial application, tool
development, programming education, or any other area.

Possible topics for an Experience Report include, but are not limited to:

   - insights gained from real-world projects using functional programming;
      - comparison of functional programming with conventional programming
      in the context of an industrial project or a university curriculum
      project-management, business, or legal issues encountered when using
      functional programming in a real-world project;
      - curricular issues encountered when using functional programming in
      education;
      - real-world constraints that created special challenges for an
      implementation of a functional language or for functional programming in
      general.

An Experience Report is distinguished from a normal PACMPL issue ICFP paper
by its title, by its length, and by the criteria used to evaluate it.

Both in the papers and in any citations, the title of each accepted
Experience Report must end with the words “(Experience Report)” in
parentheses. The acceptance rate for Experience Reports will be computed
and reported separately from the rate for ordinary papers.

Experience Report submissions can be at most 12 pages long, excluding
bibliography.

Each accepted Experience Report will be presented at the conference, but
depending on the number of Experience Reports and regular papers accepted,
authors of Experience Reports may be asked to give shorter talks.

Because the purpose of Experience Reports is to enable our community to
understand the application of functional programming, an acceptable
Experience Report need not add to the body of knowledge of the
functional-programming community by presenting novel results or
conclusions. It is sufficient if the report describes an illuminating
experience with functional programming, or provides evidence for a clear
thesis about the use of functional programming. The experience or thesis
must be relevant to ICFP, but it need not be novel.

The review committee will accept or reject Experience Reports based on
whether they judge the paper to illuminate some aspect of the use of
functional programming. Anecdotal evidence will be acceptable provided it
is well-argued and the author explains what efforts were made to gather as
much evidence as possible. Typically, papers that show how functional
programming was used are more convincing than papers that say only that
functional programming was used. It can be especially effective to present
comparisons of the situations before and after the experience described in
the paper, but other kinds of evidence would also make sense, depending on
context. Experience drawn from a single person’s experience may be
sufficient, but more weight will be given to evidence drawn from the
experience of groups of people.

An Experience Report should be short and to the point. For an industrial
project, it should make a claim about how well functional programming
worked and why; for a pedagogy paper, it might make a claim about the
suitability of a particular teaching style or educational exercise. Either
way, it should produce evidence to substantiate the claim. If functional
programming worked in this case in the same ways it has worked for others,
the paper need only summarise the results — the main part of the paper
should discuss how well it worked and in what context. Most readers will
not want to know all the details of the experience and its implementation,
but the paper should characterise it and its context well enough so that
readers can judge to what degree this experience is relevant to their own
circumstances. The paper should take care to highlight any unusual aspects;
specifics about the experience are more valuable than generalities about
functional programming.

If the paper not only describes experience but also presents new technical
results, or if the experience refutes cherished beliefs of the
functional-programming community, it may be better to submit it as a full
paper, which will be judged by the usual criteria of novelty, originality,
and relevance. The Program Chair will be happy to advise on any concerns
about which category to submit to.
About PACMPL
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#about-pacmpl>

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (PACMPL
https://pacmpl.acm.org/) is a Gold Open Access journal publishing research
on all aspects of programming languages, from design to implementation and
from mathematical formalisms to empirical studies. Each issue of the
journal is devoted to a particular subject area within programming
languages and will be announced through publicised Calls for Papers, like
this one.
Important update on ACM’s new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM
Conferences:
<https://icfp26.sigplan.org/track/icfp-2026-icfp-papers#important-update-on-acms-new-open-access-publishing-model-for-2026-acm-conferences>

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM
publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100%
Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open
Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying
Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already
part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not
require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70–75%).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an
APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a geographic or
discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article,
please consult the list of participating institutions
<https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/open-participants> in ACM Open and
review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy
<https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-open-access-apc-waivers-and-discounts>
.

To support a smooth transition and encourage broader ACM Open
participation, ACM has introduced a temporary subsidy on APC pricing for
2026, funded directly by ACM. This pricing applies to all articles
published in ACM and SIG sponsored conferences taking place in 2026. The
subsidized conference pricing for 2026 is as follows:
Authors No ACM or SIG members At least 1 ACM or SIG member
ACM and SIG Sponsored Conference Article $350 $250
From a lower-middle-income country
<https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/lower-middle-income-countries>
$175 $125

This represents a 65% discount <https://www.acm.org/publications/openaccess>,
funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their
institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.

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