https://gecco-2026.sigevo.org/HomePage
The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) presents the latest high-quality results in genetic and evolutionary computation since 1999. Topics include: genetic algorithms, genetic programming, swarm intelligence, complex systems, evolutionary combinatorial optimization and metaheuristics, evolutionary machine learning, learning for evolutionary computation, evolutionary multiobjective optimization, evolutionary numerical optimization, neuroevolution, real world applications, search-based software engineering, theory, benchmarking, reproducibility, hybrids and more.
The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2026) will be held in San José, Costa Rica, from July 13 to July 17 2026, and will present the latest high-quality results in genetic and evolutionary computation, in a hybrid format. Topics include genetic algorithms, genetic programming, ant colony optimization and swarm intelligence, complex systems, evolutionary combinatorial optimization and metaheuristics, evolutionary machine learning, evolutionary multiobjective optimization, evolutionary numerical optimization, neuroevolution, real-world applications, theory, hybrids and more. The full list of tracks is available online.
The GECCO 2026 Program Committee invites the submission of technical papers describing your best work in genetic and evolutionary computation. Full papers of at most 8 pages (excluding references) should present original work that meets the high-quality standards of GECCO. Accepted full papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of the Main Proceedings of GECCO. Any content/appendix beyond the 8 pages limit (excluding references) should be submitted as supplementary material. Accepted full papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of the Main Proceedings of GECCO. For full papers, a separate abstract needs to be submitted first by January 19, 2026. Full papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of January 26, 2026.
Each paper submitted to GECCO will be rigorously evaluated in a double-blind review process. Evaluation is done on a per-track basis, ensuring high interest and high expertise of the reviewers. Review criteria include the significance of the work, technical soundness, novelty, clarity, writing quality, relevance and, if applicable, sufficiency of information to permit replication.
Besides full papers, poster-only papers, of at most 4 pages (including references) may be submitted. Poster-only papers should present original work that has not yet reached the maturity and completeness of research results that are published as full papers at GECCO. The review of poster-only papers follows the same double-blind process mentioned above. Accepted poster-only papers will appear as extended abstracts in the ACM digital library as part of the Companion Proceedings of GECCO. Poster-only papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of January 26, 2026, and no abstract needs to be submitted first.
By submitting a paper, the author(s) agree that, if their paper is accepted, they will:
Each paper accepted needs to have at least one author registered. If an author is presenting more than one paper at the conference, she/he does not pay any additional registration fees.
Full papers (traditional category)
Poster-only papers
More detailed information on the review process and the publication policy can be found below. Further instructions for paper formatting and submitting papers can be found on the Paper Submission Instructions page.
Alternatively, you can follow this link to go directly to the paper submission website. You must use the submission website to submit all kinds of contributions to GECCO (including the abstract of full papers).
Full papers
Papers in this category concern the traditional full papers of at most 8 pages (excluding references), that are aimed to present original new work in genetic and evolutionary computation that meets the high-quality standards of GECCO. Accepted full papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of the main proceedings of GECCO.
Mandatory abstract submissions of at most 200 words for full papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of January 19 2026; submissions of the full papers themselves are due by the non-extensible deadline of January 26, 2026.
Poster-only papers
Submissions are allowed that are targeted at being a poster-only paper of at most 4 pages (including references). Such papers should still present work in genetic and evolutionary computation that is original and new, but has not yet reached the stage of the more mature, complete research results that are typically published in full papers at GECCO. Accepted poster-only papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of the companion proceedings of GECCO. Poster-only papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of January 26, 2026. All conditions for the submission of full papers also apply to poster-only papers.
For each track at GECCO, at most CEILING(40% * N_submitted_to_track) papers shall be accepted as a full paper, where N_submitted_to_track is the number of full papers submitted to that track. Track chairs are encouraged to only accept papers that they feel adhere to the standards of GECCO. I.e., the acceptance rate of a track should be lower than 40% if there is not a sufficient number of good submitted papers according to the track chairs.
There is no maximum acceptance rate on poster papers submitted as poster paper nor on poster papers submitted originally as full paper. It is up to the track chairs to decide the minimum poster-paper quality. Papers that are deemed by the track chairs and/or the EiC to not be a proper fit within the track they were submitted to nor any other track in the conference, will be desk rejected.
Papers that are deemed by the track chairs and/or the EiC to not be a proper fit within the track they were submitted to, but are a good fit within another track, may be transferred provided that both sets of track chairs agree and the EiC provides final approval. The EiC retains the authority to overrule in exceptional cases to ensure consistency, fairness, and alignment with the mission of GECCO. Authors will be notified of transfers and given the choice to accept the transfer or retract their submission. If authors decline a transfer but do not retract, the paper may be desk rejected by the home track chairs with EiC approval. Transfers and any desk rejections must be completed and communicated to authors before the reviewing process begins. Submission instructions will remind authors that it is their responsibility to select the most appropriate track; misplaced papers that cannot be transferred may be rejected on that basis.
Any paper that was submitted to a track, but was moved to another track by the GECCO organization, counts toward the track it was moved to, not the one it was originally submitted to. A track for which there are less than 10 full-length submitted papers is fully excluded from the Best Paper Award (BPA) procedure. A track is allowed to have a track-specific BPA if at least 30 full-length papers were submitted to that track (i.e., poster papers do not qualify).
Two or more tracks are allowed to have a joint-track BPA if at least 30 full-length papers were submitted to those tracks combined (i.e., poster papers do not qualify) and there is at least one paper nominated for each of the constituent tracks. The EiC decides upon such groupings in agreement with the involved track chairs. In case no consensus can be reached, the EiC decides.
No track may be in more than one group of tracks with which a joint-track BPA is associated. For any track, there can be at most one BPA. For any group of tracks with which a joint-track BPA is associated, there can be at most one BPA. For any BPA, there may not be less than 2 nominated papers. For any track-specific BPA, there may not be more than 3 nominated papers. For any group of tracks with which a joint-track BPA is associated, there may not be more than 4 nominated papers.
Best paper nominations are decided upon per track and by the track chairs. Any paper for which a secondary track has been assigned shall only be considered for nomination in its primary track. Track chairs may decide not to nominate any paper for their track, even if there are at least 15 unique full-length submitted papers for that track. If any track chair has any conflict of interest (including, but not limited to, co-authorship) with regard to any paper being nominated, that track chair shall be excluded from making the decision for paper nomination and be replaced by the EiC. If the EiC also has a conflict of interest with that paper, the GC shall replace the EiC in this matter. If the GC also has a conflict of interest with that paper, the SIGEVO Officers will take the final decision. Any paper for which the EiC or the GC is a co-author cannot be nominated for a BPA.
Each paper submitted to GECCO will be rigorously reviewed in a double-blind review process. In other words, authors should not know who the reviewers of their work are and reviewers should not know who the authors are. To this end, the following information is very important:
If you are using LaTeX, consider using the following header to remove author listing and to remove sections marked as containing identifying information (e.g. Acknowledgements):\documentclass[dvipsnames,format=sigconf,anonymous=true,review=true]{acmart}
All accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Simultaneously submitting work to another conference or journal that is substantially similar to work also submitted to GECCO, is NOT ALLOWED. Material may later be revised and submitted to a journal, if this is permitted by the journal.
It is also NOT ALLOWED to submit work to GECCO that is substantially similar to work already accepted or published in other conferences or journals. GECCO is however still interested in such related publications. For this reason, researchers are invited to submit abstracts of their work recently published in top-tier conferences and journals to the Hot Off the Press track. Contributions will be selected to be presented at GECCO based on quality and interest to the GECCO community.
A notable exception to the above is the simultaneous submission of work to arXiv. Reviewers will be asked not to actively look for such submissions, but if they are aware of them, this will not constitute a conflict of interest.
The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date will be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.
The submitted contributions will be checked using anti-plagiarism systems. Those papers or posters with a high percentage of plagiarism, exceeding the page limit, simultaneously submitted to another conference or journal, or falling out of the scope of the conference will be rejected without review.
As a published ACM author, 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.
It is possible to submit supplementary material (e.g., videos, a PDF appendix, source code, data, mathematical proofs) in addition to the PDF of the paper. In particular, we encourage authors to submit source code to support replication of experiments as described in their paper. At the time of submission, all the supplementary material must also be anonymized.
You can upload supplementary material as a PDF, ZIP archive (.zip) or a compressed tarball (.tgz or .tar.gz). Please use informative filenames and do not upload more than 10MB. Consider making the code available in a publicly accessible repository with a declared plan to enable permanent accessibility (e.g. zenodo).
The supplementary material may or may not be considered when evaluating the paper, at the discretion of the reviewers.
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 2,600 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 76%).
Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.
Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:
This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.
This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.
Additionally, SIGEVO will provide an additional subsidy of $125 to papers accepted to GECCO 2026 (and only for 2026) that are subject to APCs. This will make the final amounts to be paid:
It is IMPORTANT to mention that both forms of subsidy (by ACM and by SIGVO) only apply to GECCO 2026. Moreover, it is still to be determined how the SIGEVO subsidy will be implemented, either directly to the APC or in other forms.
Finally, we note that APC charges apply to accepted Full Papers, but Abstracts (1-2 pages), Extended Abstracts (1-4 pages) and Tutorials ARE NOT APC Eligible; i.e., an APC will not have to be paid for these types of contributions.