TAP Research Papers

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

Aims and Scope

The TAP conference promotes research in verification and formal methods that targets the interplay of proofs and testing: the advancement of techniques of each kind and their combination, with the ultimate goal of improving software and system dependability.

Research in verification has seen a steady convergence of heterogeneous techniques and a synergy between the traditionally distinct areas of testing (and dynamic analysis) and of proving (and static analysis). Formal techniques for counter-example generation based on, for example, symbolic execution, SAT/SMT-solving or model checking, furnish evidence for the potential of a combination of test and proof. The combination of predicate abstraction with testing-like techniques based on exhaustive enumeration opens the perspective for novel techniques of proving correctness. On the practical side, testing offers cost-effective debugging techniques of specifications or crucial parts of program proofs (such as invariants). Last but not least, testing is indispensable when it comes to the validation of the underlying assumptions of complex system models involving hardware and/or system environments. Over the years, there is growing acceptance in research communities that testing and proving are complementary rather than mutually exclusive techniques.

TAP’s scope encompasses many aspects of verification technology, including foundational work, tool development, and empirical research. Its topics of interest center around the connection between proofs (and other static techniques) and testing (and other dynamic techniques). Papers are solicited on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Verification and analysis techniques combining proofs and tests,
• Program proving with the aid of testing techniques,
• Deductive techniques supporting the automated generation of test vectors and oracles (theorem proving, model checking, symbolic execution, SAT/SMT solving, constraint logic programming, etc.),
• Deductive techniques supporting novel definitions of coverage criteria,
• Specification inference by deductive and dynamic methods,
• Testing and runtime analysis of formal specifications,
• Search-based technics for proving and testing,
• Verification of verification tools and environments,
• Applications of test and proof techniques in new domains,
• Combined approaches of test and proof in the context of formal certifications (Common Criteria, CENELEC, …), and
• Case studies, tool and framework descriptions, and experience

Authors are encouraged (but not required) to make available to the reviewers (and whenever possible publicly) the relevant artifacts. While the artifacts will not be formally reviewed, their availability and - consistency with and replicability of results in the paper, - completeness, - documentation, and - ease of use, will be weighted for the acceptance decision.

Important Dates:

• March 3rd March 24th, 2023: deadline for abstract submission~~
• March 17th March 24th, 2023: deadline for full-text submission
• April 21st, 2023: Acceptance notification
• May 15th, 2023: Deadline for final papers

Submission Instructions

TAP 2023 accepts papers of four kinds:

• Regular research papers: full submissions describing original research, of up to 16 pages (excluding references).

• Tool demonstration papers: submissions describing the design and implementation of an analysis/verification tool or framework, of up to 8 pages (excluding references). The tool/framework described in a tool demonstration paper should be available for public use.

• Short papers: submissions describing preliminary findings, proofs of concepts, and exploratory studies, of up to 6 pages (excluding references).

• Journal-first extended abstracts, of up to 4 pages, summarizing recently published articles in high-quality journals. The aim of journal-first papers is to further enrich the program of TAP, as well as to provide an more flexible path to dissemination of results in the field. The summarized journal article should have been published (or accepted) by 1 July 2020 or later, and report new results (as opposed as simply extending prior conference work with ‘appendix’ material, or minor enhancements). Journal-first submissions must be marked as such in the submission’s title, and must explicitly include full bibliographic details (including a DOI) of the journal publication they are based on.

Accepted submissions will be published in Springer’s LNCS series. Papers have to adhere to Springer’s LNCS format and must be submitted in PDF format at the EasyChair submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tap23