Research Areas

ISSTA welcomes submissions addressing topics across the full spectrum of software analysis. Topics of interest include the following and are grouped into the following eight research areas. Please note that these topics are by no means exhaustive. Each submission will need to indicate one primary and optionally a secondary area. Program chairs will ultimately assign a paper to an area chair (and at least three reviewers), considering the authors’ selection, the paper’s content, and other factors such as (if applicable) possible conflicts of interest.

AI for Analysis and Testing

    Agentic or LLM-based specification inference
    Agentic or LLM-based code generation
    Agentic or LLM-based software testing
    Agentic of LLM-based program analysis
    Agentic or LLM-based program repair

Analysis and Testing for AI

    Testing and analysis of agents or agentic systems
    Testing and analysis of ML-model/software hybrid systems
    Testing and analysis of ML-components and libraries
    Fairness, safety, trustworthiness

Software Test Generation

    Regression, mutation, and model-based testing
    System, unit, and integration testing
    Black-, grey-, and white-box fuzzing
    Search-based software testing
    Symbolic and concolic execution

Software Debugging and Repair

    Fault localization and debugging
    Search-based program repair
    Constraint-based program repair
    Reverse engineering
    Program comprehension
    Specification inference

Software Verification and Analysis Techniques

    Static, dynamic, and empirical program analysis
    Program verification, runtime verification, and model checking
    Refactoring, transformation, and reduction
    Testing and analysis in CI/CD or deployment
    Testing and analysis of evolving systems
    Mutation testing and analysis
    Ecosystem-scale analysis
    Non-functional properties (dependability, safety, reliability, and performance)

Analysis and Testing for Security

    Binary analysis, lifting, and instrumentation
    Vulnerability detection (e.g., sanitizers)
    Side channels and data leakage
    Supply chain analysis
    Malware analysis
    Obfuscation

Domain-specific Analysis and Testing

    Testing and analysis of blockchain systems or smart contracts
    Testing and analysis of concurrent or distributed systems
    Testing and analysis of cyber physical or autonomous systems
    Testing and analysis of database or operating systems
    Testing and analysis of numerical and scientific applications
    Testing and analysis of testing or analysis tools
    Testing and analysis of web, mobile, or quantum applications

Empirical and User Studies of Testing and Analysis Processes

    Software engineering processes (e.g., agile, DevOps)
    Green and sustainable technologies
    Ethics and values
    Software economics
    Systematic code review and inspection
    Program comprehension and visualization