CALL FOR PAPERS Journal of Systems and Software (North-Holland) Special Issue on Formal Methods Technology Transfer Formal methods represent one of the innovative research areas that can significantly contribute to an engineering discipline for software systems. The existence of many international workshops and conferences as well as many books and special issues of journals devoted to formal methods in recent years bear witness to the importance of this area. Many of the research articles, from both academia as well as government and industrial research labs, have glorified the potential impacts of these methods and how they can substantially increase the reliability of software systems, especially those operating in critical environments. Given the historical concerns for reliable software, most serious software practitioners in the software building world would welcome new approaches to reliable software construction and therefore would adopt any tool and notation that work toward achieving reliability goals in a cost-effective manner. For various reasons, however, industrial practitioners have been reluctant to consider formal methods very widely despite the flurry of research results suggesting the applicability and effectiveness of these methods. This is perhaps because industrial practitioners view the sometimes deep analysis of formal methods more as speculation than practical evaluative research. The purpose of this special issue of Journal of Systems and Software is to address the above issue, that is, why, in spite of many research results claiming the practical applications of formal methods for increased reliability, we do not see wide usage. The objective is to explore ways in which the benefits of formal methods - whatever constitutes the most important benefits of formal methods - can be transitioned into practice and how the gap between the expectations of industrial practitioners and the research results of academia can be narrowed. We are inviting experts from both industry and research institutions to share their ideas and expertise. Areas of Interest. Areas of interest include: * initiatives to narrow the chasm between practitioners and researchers, * empirical results in applying formal methods to large systems, * evaluative explorations of the costs and benefits of formal methods, * integration of formal methods with non-formal ones, * formal methods light and partial applications, * strategies for formal methods that can scale to large systems, * initiatives intended to increase and improve practitioners' interests and confidence in formal methods, and * initiatives intended to increase and improve researchers' understanding of the role of formal methods in large systems. In line with the aims and mission of Journal of Systems and Software (see Editor's Corner, JSS 28:1-2, 1995), papers that "report on deep and theoretical analysis of a topic where the conclusions of that analysis are not supported by at least some form of evaluation" will not be considered or will be given a low priority. High priority will be given to those papers that "constitute research that makes a conscious effort to ground its findings in practice" and offer "both theoretical and pragmatic developments with emphasis on those that have been tested by government, industry, or university empirical research." Thus experimental reports (for example, in integration of formal and non-formal methods), case studies (presenting useful lessons and insights gained), and practical results (e.g., realistic assessment of practicality or applicability of formal methods) are encouraged. Submission Requirements and Due Dates Submitted articles are limited to 6,000 words. Long submissions will be returned without review. Article title, author name(s), affiliation(s), e-mail addresses, an abstract and up to five keywords should appear on the first page. Due Date for Submissions: March 1, 1997 Evaluation Notification: June 15, 1997 Due Date for Final Version: July 15, 1997 Publication Date: January 1998 Send submissions to: Hossein Saiedian, Guest Editor Journal of Systems and Software Department of Computer Science University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE 68182-0500 USA hossein@cs.unomaha.edu Additional and updated details are available at: http://cs.unomaha.edu/jss