TACAS 2027

The conference aims to bridge the gaps between different communities with this common interest and to support them in their quest to improve the utility, reliability, flexibility and efficiency of tools and algorithms for building systems.

Theoretical papers with clear relevance for tool construction and analysis as well as tool descriptions and case studies with a conceptual message are all encouraged. The topics covered by the conference include, but are not limited to:

• specification and verification techniques;
• software and hardware verification;
• analytical techniques for real-time, hybrid, or stochastic systems;
• analytical techniques for safety, security, or dependability;
• SAT and SMT solving;
• theorem proving;
• model checking;
• static and dynamic program analysis;
• testing;
• abstraction techniques for modeling and verification;
• compositional and refinement-based methodologies;
• system construction and transformation techniques;
• machine-learning techniques for synthesis and verification;
• tool environments and tool architectures;
• applications and case studies.

The important dates are available in the Joint Call for Papers. Note that all deadlines are strict and firm.

TACAS accepts four types of submissions: research papers, case-study papers, regular tool papers, and tool demonstration papers.

Research Papers identify and justify a principled advance to the theoretical foundations for the construction and analysis of systems. Where applicable, they are supported by experimental validation. Artifact evaluation for regular research papers is not mandatory but strongly encouraged.

We do not discourage authors of regular research papers to put their submission on arXiv (or similar repos). Yet, we strongly encourage authors to not put the work on arXiv (or similar repos) around 2 weeks before and after the submission deadline, because potential reviewers may be subscribed to receive updates on recently posted papers.

Case-Study Papers are full length case-studies that describe the application of techniques developed by the community to a single problem or a set of problems of practical importance, preferably in a real-world setting. Case-study papers must describe the problem of interest and its novelty. It must provide a detailed description of the case-study (or studies) and various related techniques to solve the problem of interest for the case-study application. Modeling aspects of the case-study must be discussed. The case-study paper must provide detailed results on the application of formal techniques and lead to a conclusion that could be of interest beyond TACAS (to the research community pertaining to the case study). Artifact evaluation is currently not mandatory for case-study papers but undergoing artifact evaluation is strongly encouraged.

Regular Tool Papers are full length papers that describe a tool of interest to the community or a new version of the tool built using novel algorithmic and engineering techniques. Regular tool papers must describe tools of broad interest and utility to the TACAS community. The papers must clearly describe the problem to be solved, its importance, related work, the techniques used in the tool and their novelty, the construction of the tool, its unique features, discuss how the tool is used and present benchmarking of the tool including comparisons with other tools and previous versions of the tool. For tools from the industry, the description should be useful in allowing the community members to reproduce some of the key techniques or “tricks” in their own tools. All tool papers must undergo mandatory artifact evaluation.

Tool-Demonstration Papers are short papers that advertise a tool, or a new version of a tool, that is valuable to the community. The focus of the paper should be the tool, its usage, and why it is interesting. In contrast to regular tool papers, it is not required to present a new tool or new features, there is no focus on the algorithmic background, and it is not required to perform a thorough evaluation. In contrast to case-study papers, the demonstration of the tool does not require a significant or novel case study. All tool-demonstration papers must pass the mandatory artifact evaluation.

Upon paper submission, authors are asked to declare their Conflict of Interest (COI) with TACAS 2027 PC members as listed below. A COI includes the following sources:

• Family member or close friend.
• Ph.D. advisor or advisee (no time limit), or postdoctoral or undergraduate mentor or mentee within the past five years.
• Person with the same affiliation.
• Involved in an alleged incident of harassment. (It is not required that the incident be reported.)
• Reviewer owes author a favour (e.g., recently requested a reference letter).
• Frequent or recent collaborator (within the last 5 years)

Falsely declared conflicts (i.e., not satisfying one of the listed reasons) risk rejection without consideration of merit. If authors believe that they have a valid reason for a COI not listed above, or are uncertain about a potential COI, they are encouraged to contact the TACAS PC chairs.