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The 17th International Conference on Tests and Proofs (TAP 2023)

https://conf.researchr.org/home/tap-2023

co-located within STAF 2023 (Software Technologies: Applications and
Foundations) (https://conf.researchr.org/home/staf-2023)

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*Aim and Scope*
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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,
- Formal techniques supporting the automated generation of test
vectors and oracles (theorem proving, model checking, symbolic
execution, SAT/SMT solving, constraint logic programming, etc.),
- Formal 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*:
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- *March 3d, 2023*: deadline for abstract submission
- *March 17th, 2023*: deadline for full-text submission
- April 21st, 2023: Acceptance notification
- May 15th, 2023: Deadline for final papers

*Submission Instructions*
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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
(ftp://ftp.springernature.com/cs-proceeding/svproc/guidelines/Springer_Guidelines_for_Authors_of_Proceedings.pdf)
and must be submitted in PDF format via the EasyChair submission site:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tap23

*Program Committee Chairs*
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Cristina Seceleanu, Mälardalen University, Sweden
cristina.seceleanu@mdu.se
Virgile Prevosto, LIST Institute of CEA Tech, France
virgile.prevosto@cea.fr


*Program Committee*
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see https://conf.researchr.org/committee/tap-2023/tap-2023-papers-program-committee