Aims & Scope

Methods of Software Design: Techniques and Applications

Science of Computer Programming is dedicated to the distribution, via publication of papers and software, of research results in the areas of software systems development, use and maintenance, including the software aspects of hardware design. The journal has a wide scope ranging from the many facets of methodological foundations to the details of technical issues and aspects of industrial practice.

The subjects of interest to SCP cover the entire spectrum of methods for the entire life cycle of software systems, including:

    Requirements, specification, design, validation, verification, coding, testing, maintenance, metrics and renovation of software;
    Design, implementation and evaluation of programming languages;
    Programming environments, development tools, visualisation and animation;
    Management of the development process;
    Human factors in software, software for social interaction, software for social computing;
    Cyber physical systems, and software for the interaction between the physical and the machine;
    Software aspects of infrastructure services, system administration, and network management.

Special emphasis is given to recent trends in software development, such as software architecture, component-based software development and web-based software engineering.

SCP is divided into two tracks. These are: (1) Research papers and (2) Software.

Research Papers Track

These cover four lines of work: (1) Concepts and methodology, (2) Formal techniques, (3) Experimental software technology, (4) Descriptive software technology.

    Concepts and methodology is open for methodological, philosophical and sociological studies on all aspects of computer software production and usage, including ethics. Also short papers are allowed here, called viewpoints.

    Formal techniques emphasizes the development and the pragmatic application of formal and semi-formal techniques. Submissions that the editors consider mainly mathematical or theoretical in nature, with the preliminary consent of the authors, will formally be forwarded to the sister journal TCS.

    Experimental software technology is open for expositions on implementations of and experiments with novel programming languages, systems and methods.

    Descriptive software technology deals with observational studies of current software development practices, reporting on new languages, systems and methods, including survey reports on the various themes.

Software Track

See the specific submission instructions for the Software Track in the Guide for Authors.

The Software Track of Science of Computer Programming publishes Original Software Publications (OSP) to disseminate existing and useful software in the areas of programming (languages) and software development. Research on programming and software development may involve the creation of (huge) software systems to perform all kinds of experiments related to programming (languages) and software development. A copy of the 'accepted for publication' version of software will be copied to the journal's GitHub repository for indexing purposes. Go to the Science of Computer Programming GitHub repository.

Special Issues: The Journal welcomes Special Issues within its Scope either resulting from conferences or workshops or from dedicated editorial efforts. There can be special issues for research papers or for software.

Special Issue on Selected papers from the 27th Brazilian Symposium on Formal Methods (SBMF 2024)
Día de Entrega: 2025-08-22

This special issue is based on a selection of papers presented at the 27th Brazilian Symposium on Formal Methods (SBMF 2024).

Guest editors:

Prof. Sidney Nogueira, PhD
Affiliation:Computer Science Department, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil
Fields of interest: Formal methods, software testing, software verification

Prof. Ciprian Teodorov, PhD
Affiliation: Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Brest, France
Fields of interest: formal methods, specification languages, behavior analysis

Prof. Adenilso Simao, PhD
Affiliation: ICMC, University of Sao Paulo
Fields of interest: software testing, formal methods and programming languages

Special issue information:

This special issue is based on a selection of papers presented at the 27th Brazilian Symposium on Formal Methods (SBMF 2024) -  showcasing advances in the following subtopics.

1. Formal Analysis and Verification in Temporal and Symbolic Systems: Papers in this area should delve into formal analysis and verification of temporal and symbolic systems, offering new tools and algorithms to enhance decision-making and system reliability under time constraints.

2. Formal Semantics and Verification in Model-based Systems Engineering: This subtopic focuses on advancements in formal semantics and verification of system engineering models (UML, SysML), showcasing the integration of formal techniques (such as CSP, Petri nets) or the usage of formal methods to design unifiedframeworks that improve reliability and consistency in systems modeling and verification processes.

3. Formal Verification and Proof Techniques in Algorithms and Logics: Papers in this topic should focus on formal verification and proof techniques applied to algorithms and logics, ensuring soundness and robustness in automata minimization, modal logics, and machine learning algorithms.

4. Formal Methods for Security and Privacy: Papers should explore rigorous approaches for ensuring security and privacy in areas such as cryptographic protocols, open banking, and smart contract deployment.

Special Issue on Extended selected papers and software artefacts of FASE 2025
Día de Entrega: 2025-09-01

Guest editors:

Dr. Artur Boronat, Ph.D.
Organization: University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Areas of Expertise: maintenance and evolution, model-driven engineering, formal methods

Prof. Dr. Gordon Fraser, Ph.D.
Organization: University of Passau, Germany
Areas of Expertise: software testing, search-based software engineering, software analysis

Dr. Laura Bussi, Ph.D.
Organization: National Research Council of Italy, Pisa, Italy
Areas of Expertise: spatial logics, model checking, formal methods

Dr. Stefan Winter
Organization: LMU Munich, Germany
Areas of Expertise: software testing, fault injection, reproducibility

Special issue information:

This special issue presents extended papers and softwareartefacts from FASE 2025, encompassing a range of topics in software engineering. The contributions include advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence, software architectures, quality assurance, requirements
engineering, and model-driven approaches, alongside innovative software artefacts that support these domains.

These works emphasize rigorous methodologies, validation techniques, and the role of software artefacts in advancing research and practice, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of modern software engineering.

Submissions to this special issue are by invitation only.

Special Issue on Selected papers from the 28th Ibero-American Conference on Software Engineering (CIbSE 2025)
Día de Entrega: 2025-10-31

Guest editors:

Prof. Andrea Delgado, Associate Professor
Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
Areas of Expertise: software engineering, business process management and technologies, process mining, service-oriented computing, model-driven engineering

Prof. Silvia Abrahão, Full Professor
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Areas of Expertise: software engineering, model-driven engineering, empirical software engineering, adaptive user interfaces, human factors.

Dr. Beatriz Marín
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Areas of Expertise: Software Testing, Requirements Engineering, Software Quality

Prof. Luca Cernuzzi, Full Professor 
Universidad Católica “Nuestra Señora de la Asunción”
Areas of Expertise: software engineering, model-driven engineering, human factors

Special issue information:

Over the past decades, software has become deeply embedded in every aspect of society—ranging from enterprise systems that support core organizational processes, to real-time embedded systems and personal mobile applications. Today, this expansion continues alongside the emergence of transformative technologies such as quantum computing, green computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and, most notably, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI. These advancements underscore the growing importance of Software Engineering as a discipline capable of addressing the challenges posed by innovation, scale, and societal impact. Software Engineering research and practice play a critical role in the reliable and efficient development of increasingly complex software systems. Grounded in wellestablished methods, processes, and tool support, Software Engineering enables the creation of robust, maintainable, and scalable solutions. Since its inception in 1998, CIbSE has served as a premier forum for showcasing recent advancements in both research and best practices for engineering software-intensive systems. CIbSE has established itself as the leading forum for Software Engineering research in Ibero-America, promoting high quality scientific inquiry while fostering collaboration between academia, industry and other organizations. This special issue is a collection of extended versions of the best papers of CIbSE 2025, which is held from Mon 12 - Fri 16 May 2025 Ciudad Real, Spain.