RAIRO â Theoretical Informatics and Applications
Special Issue on Formal Methods for Modeling and Verification
of Distributed and Trustworthy Computing Systems
CALL FOR PAPERS
Digital services are increasingly embedded in critical areas of modern
society, while many applications and technical solutions are moving toward
distributed architectures. Component interactions, communication delays,
asynchronous execution, process failures, and relaxed consistency models
may introduce subtle errors and security vulnerabilities that are difficult
to detect through conventional testing alone. Formal methods provide
rigorous
foundations for specifying, modeling, analyzing, and verifying such systems.
This special issue is closely aligned with the scope of RAIRO-Theoretical
Informatics and Applications, particularly in theoretical computer science,
concurrent and distributed computations, program verification, logic,
algorithms, and cryptography. It invites original research articles on the
theory, methods, tools, and applications of formal methods for modeling and
verifying distributed and trustworthy computing systems.
Topics of interest
- Formal modeling and specification of distributed and trustworthy systems
- Model checking for concurrent and distributed computations
- Theorem proving, temporal logic, and logic-based verification
- Design, analysis, and verification of distributed algorithms
- Scalable verification methods, abstraction, and compositional reasoning
- Verification of safety, liveness, consistency, reliability, and fault
tolerance
- Formal security verification of software, protocols, and system
architectures
- Privacy, vulnerability, and attack-surface analysis of trustworthy systems
- Formal methods for cloud/edge/IoT environments, blockchain systems, and
cyber-physical systems
- Runtime verification, symbolic execution, and tool-supported formal
analysis
- Formal verification of AI systems
- Use of AI techniques in support of formal methods
Guest editors
Hubert Garavel, Inria Center at University of Grenoble Alpes, France
Jingsha He, Beijing University of Technology, China
Stephan Merz, Inria Center at University of Lorraine
Selection criteria
- Relevance to the scope of the special issue
- Originality and novelty
- Soundness of the formal model or verification method
- Technical rigor and significance
- Clarity of presentation
- Compliance with ethical publishing standards
Submission information
- Full-length papers are invited for peer review.
- Article types may include original research articles, review articles, and
short communications (including mini-reviews and viewpoints).
- Manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not for consideration
elsewhere. Manuscripts based on previously accepted conference papers
must
contain substantial new material, and the increment with respect to the
conference papers must be described in the manuscript.
- Submit online through the journal's submission and peer-review system at
https://ita.nestor-edp.org
Select the special issue title "Formal Methods for Modeling and
Verification
of Distributed and Trustworthy Computing Systems".
- Instructions for authors are available at
https://www.rairo-ita.org/author-information/instructions-for-authors
- For questions, contact the guest editors at [email protected]
Use of Generative AI Tools
The use of AI tools for conducting research must be disclosed in the
manuscript,
with their specific uses described in detail. Such uses include the
design of
the research project, creation of theories and algorithms, designing
experiments,
generation and collection of data, coding, testing, proof and verification,
assisting with writing, or any aspects that are directly relevant to the
conclusion of the research. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy,
originality, and integrity of the manuscript.
Timeline (All dates AoE)
- Submission deadline: February 28, 2027
- Authors of papers that do not meet the criteria listed above will be
notified of desk rejection within 48 hours of submission.
- Papers considered for publication will typically undergo one or two rounds
of peer review.
- First round review decisions: within two or three months after submission.
- Notification of final decisions: four months after first round reviews.
- Publication date: rolling online publication
