Journal of Symbolic Computation
Special Issue on Program Verification, Automated Debugging and Symbolic Computation
Symbolic computation is the science of computing with symbolic objects, such as terms, formulae, programs,
and representations of algebraic and geometric objects. Powerful symbolic methods and software systems have
been developed and applied to many problems in science, technology, and engineering in the past decades.
This special issue is devoted to promoting the development and application of methods and software tools
of symbolic computation for program verification and automated debugging and to publishing significant research
results and advances that have been achieved in relevant directions. Original research papers addressing
all aspects of the influence and usage of symbolic computation in program verification and automated debugging
and on the intersections of the three different yet interrelated areas of computer science are solicited.
The special issue, organized in connection with the two international seminars
PAS 2012
and
PAS 2013 on the same subject held in Beijing, China,
is open for submissions from the seminar participants, as well as authors who did not attend any of the seminars.
Specific topics for the special issue include, but are not limited to the following:
- Theories and methodologies for program verification and testing
- Model checking, fault locating and program repairing
- Symbolic computation and automated reasoning for program verification
- Termination, correctness and complexity analysis of programs
- Automated program synthesis and transformation
- Logic and semantics for automated and algorithmic debugging
- Program debugging paradigms and techniques
- Symbolic constraint solving for verification and debugging
- Tools, prototypes, empirical and case studies
Participants of PAS 2012 and 2013 are encouraged to submit full papers describing their work presented at the seminars
for publication in this special issue. Other authors are also cordially invited to contribute to the special issue
by submitting high-quality original research papers.
Papers submitted to this special issue must not have been published or simultaneously submitted for publication in
other journals or refereed conference proceedings and must be written in English and include a well-written
introduction addressing the following questions in succinct and informal manner:
- What is the problem?
- Why is the problem important?
- What has been done so far on the problem?
- What is the main contribution of the paper on the problem?
- What aspect of symbolic computation helps solve the problem?
- Is the contribution original? Why?
- Is the contribution non-trivial? Why?
All the main definitions, theorems, and algorithms should be illustrated by simple yet meaningful examples.
- Submission of papers: March 31, 2014
- Notification of acceptance: August 31, 2014
- Publication of the special issue: Spring 2015