The aim of this Special Issue is to report the state of research and practice on the theme of Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse. This Special Issue is comprised of selected articles drawn from submissions from an open international Call for Papers and extended peer-reviewed papers presented at the 5th Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse (SBCARS 2011), held in São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 26-27 September 2011 (http://www.each.usp.br/cbsoft2011/ingles/sbcars/sbcars_en.html).

The call for this Special Issue received 25 submissions. Moreover, well-known researchers in the area were invited to submit papers. Such submissions were originated from co-authors of 18 countries (Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, United Kingdom).

Each submission was reviewed by 3 reviewers. The reviewing process was organized in two phases. First submissions were selected to provide revised versions based on the reviewer's recommendations or definitively rejected. The revised versions were then checked by the reviewers and a second selection carried out of which 4 high-quality articles were finally accepted to be included in the Special Issue. In total, 48 reviewers participated in the process. This Special Issue is composed by these 4 accepted articles. They present high-quality research carried out by co-authors from Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Iran