Call for Papers
The ABZ conference is dedicated to the cross-fertilization of state-based and machine-based formal methods, like Abstract State Machines (ASM), Alloy, B, TLA, VDM and Z, that share a common conceptual foundation and are widely used in both academia and industry for the design and analysis of hardware and software systems. The conference aims for a vital exchange of knowledge and experience among the research communities around different formal methods.
The name ABZ goes back to the first conference in London in 2008, where the ASM, B and Z conference series were merged into a joint event. In the following years other formal methods were added, e.g. Alloy in 2010 (Orford, Canada), VDM in 2012 (Pisa, Italy), and TLA + in 2014 (Toulouse, France). After the also successful 2016 conferences in Linz, Austria and 2018 in Southampton, UK, it was decided to name the conference "ABZ: International Conference on Rigorous State Based Methods", to stress the openness for further state-based formal methods. We hope to continue many fruitful discussions between representatives of the individual methods in the past, which will bring us closer to the common goal of this research community: the creation of reliable and safe software.
ABZ 2021 will have a main conference track, a case study track, a doctoral symposium, tutorials, and workshops.
Four kinds of contributions are invited:
- Full research papers
Full papers of not more than 14 pages (including references) in LNCS format, which have to be original, unpublished and not submitted elsewhere. - Short presentations
Short presentations of work in progress, and tool demonstrations: This is an excellent opportunity to present and validate a work in progress. An extended abstract of not more than 4 pages (including references) in LNCS format is expected and will be reviewed. - Application in industry papers
Reporting on work or experiences on the application of state based formal methods in industry. An extended abstract of not more than 4 pages (including references) in LNCS format is expected and will be reviewed. It is also an interesting option for industrial practitioners who sometimes face too many constraints to prepare a full paper. - Answers to case study papers
Full papers of not more than 14 pages (including references) in LNCS format reporting on the experiments conducted with any of the state based techniques in the scope of ABZ 2021. - Contribution to doctoral symposium
This is an excellent opportunity for PhD students to present their ongoing work and receive valuable feedback from the ABZ community. Please submit a short paper of no more than 4 pages (including references) in LNCS format.
Accepted papers will appear in the Springer LNCS proceedings. For deadlines for the different kinds of contributions see below.
Main ABZ Track
Contributions are solicited on all aspects of the theory and applications of ASMs, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, Z and other state-based rigour approaches in software/hardware engineering, including the development of tools and industrial applications. The program spans from theoretical and methodological foundations to practical applications, emphasizing system engineering methods and tools that are distinguished by mathematical rigor and have proved to be industrially viable. The main goal of the conference is to contribute to the integration of accurate state- and machine-based system development methods, clarifying their commonalities and differences to better understand how to combine different approaches for accomplishing the various tasks in modeling, experimental validation, mathematical verification of reliable high-quality hardware/software systems. Although organized to host several formal methods in a single event, editorial control of the joint conference is vested in one integrated program committee.
Submission Process
Authors should consult Springer's authors' guidelines and use their proceedings templates, either for LaTeX or for Word, for the preparation of their papers. Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. In addition, the corresponding author of each paper, acting on behalf of all of the authors of that paper, must complete and sign a Consent-to-Publish form. The corresponding author signing the copyright form should match the corresponding author marked on the paper. Once the files have been sent to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the papers cannot be made.
Authors interested in contributing to ABZ 2021 in Open Access or Open Choice should refer to the corresponding Springer webpage.
Submit contribution
via EasyChair
Case Study Track
As successfully practiced since ABZ 2014, the 8th edition of ABZ will again include special sessions dedicated to an industrial case study. Due to the postponement of the ABZ 2020 conference, we decided not to provide a new case study. Nevertheless, new contributions to the automotive case study as well as to previous case studies are welcome!
See Case Study for a detailed description of the current case study and links to previous ones.
Doctoral Symposium
This year the ABZ will include a doctoral symposium. PhD students are encouraged to report on their ongoing work or research plans and receive a valuable feedback from the ABZ community. The papers are not peer reviewed, but checked by a small PC. Accepted papers are also included in the ABZ proceedings. More details can be found here.
Workshop and Tutorial Proposals
Workshops and tutorials will be associated with the main event ABZ. Proposals are solicited in areas related to the conference topics.
For more details see Workshops
Important Dates AoE
| Workshop proposal submission: | |
| Workshop notification: | |
| Tutorial proposal submission: |
| Paper submission: | |
| Notification: | |
| Final version: |
| Short paper submission: | |
| Notification: | |
| Final version: |
| ABZ 2021 conference (online): | June 7-11, 2021 |
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