Researchers from Diverso Lab at the University of Seville have received the Best Paper Award 2025 (Regular Track) from the Journal of Systems and Software, one of the leading journals in software engineering. The award recognizes the most impactful scientific contributions published during the year.
The awarded article, “UVL: Feature Modelling with the Universal Variability Language”, is led by David Benavides (University of Seville) and co-authored with Chico Sundermann, Kevin Feichtinger, José A. Galindo (University of Seville), Rick Rabiser, and Thomas Thüm.
The paper introduces Universal Variability Language (UVL), a human-readable and extensible language designed to provide a common foundation for feature modeling, a key technique in software product line engineering. UVL enables the systematic management of different software configurations, which is essential in industrial contexts where products exist in multiple variants and versions.
The language was developed through an international collaboration launched in 2018, led by Professor David Benavides, with the goal of establishing a shared standard for representing feature models and improving interoperability between tools and organizations.
UVL supports three levels of expressiveness—Boolean, Arithmetic, and Type-based modeling—and is designed to be extensible and to serve as a pivot language across software engineering tools. It is already integrated into widely used platforms such as FeatureIDE and Flamapy, and its ecosystem includes open-source parsers in Python, JavaScript, and Java maintained by an international consortium.
With a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 16.08 and a 99th percentile ranking in Scopus, the article is among the top 1% most cited publications in its category for the year.
This recognition highlights the international impact of the University of Seville’s research in software engineering and its commitment to open science and collaborative technological innovation.
Bibliographic References
David Benavides, Chico Sundermann, Kevin Feichtinger, José A. Galindo, Rick Rabiser, and Thomas Thüm. UVL: Feature Modelling with the Universal Variability Language. Journal of Systems and Software, 2025.
David Romero-Organvidez, José A. Galindo, Chico Sundermann, Jose-Miguel Horcas, and David Benavides. UVLHub: A Feature Model Data Repository Using UVL and Open Science Principles. Journal of Systems and Software, 2024.