本专刊（“Metamorphic Testing”）与2023年CCF中国软件大会（CCF Chinasoft 2023）合作，投稿本专刊并通过第一轮评审的国内论文作者需要注册参加本次大会并在“测试预期问题及蜕变测试研究进展”论坛上进行论文报告交流。
STVR SPECIAL ISSUES ON METAMORPHIC TESTING
As an open issue of software testing, the oracle problem refers to the difficulty in determining whether the outputs of the software under test meet the expectations according to the requirements. It has always been a common research topic and has not been effectively solved. Particularly, in the era of Industry 4.0, software products have become more intelligent and played more important roles in various areas, such as autonomous driving, digital finance, and navigation guidance. On the other hand, their structures are becoming more complex, containing various uncertainties and environmental dependencies. Therefore, the oracle problem becomes even more common and challenging.
Metamorphic Testing (MT) is one of the most effective software testing methodologies to alleviate the testing oracle problem. Instead of the test oracles which are missing or incomplete, MT establishes metamorphic relations that should be satisfied based on the inherent properties of the system under test. Then, the faults can be detected by checking whether the generated test groups satisfy these relations. Metamorphic testing has the advantages of simplicity, low cost, and easy automation compared with other techniques.
In recent years, metamorphic testing has been successfully adopted in various fields and achieved remarkable results, particularly in complex and safety-critical intelligent systems. In addition, the research on metamorphic testing is also scalable and sustainable. Any new technological innovations will drive the development of related software systems and inevitably create new challenges to the oracle problem. It is valuable to propose new metamorphic relations for advanced software systems or explore relevant metamorphic testing theories to better reveal and understand their potential risks and hazards.
In general, the oracle problem is one of the most significant challenges in software testing, and metamorphic testing has become a promising solution to this problem. Therefore, we organize this special issue to focus on the up-to-date progress related to MT, particularly its application and practice in emerging fields such as deep learning, cyber-physical systems, autonomous driving, natural language processing, quantum computing, and etc. In addition, we further focus on the fundamental theories of metamorphic testing, such as the quantitative evaluation and comparison of metamorphic relations and the generation and selection of metamorphic relations. We will collect innovative and high-quality research achievements in metamorphic testing theories, techniques, and experimental studies and the exploration of its application prospects in the industry. The scope of submissions includes but is not limited to:
The Scope of the Special Issue
Theoretical and methodological issues related to the oracle problems in software testing;
Test oracle problems in various applications;
Research progress on the oracle problems in software testing;
Design and generation techniques of metamorphic relations;
Reduction and prioritization techniques of metamorphic relations;
Test case generation techniques for metamorphic testing;
Optimization and prioritization for the generated test groups of metamorphic testing;
Evaluation of metamorphic relations and test cases generated through metamorphic testing;
Formal methods and methodologies related to metamorphic testing;
Application of metamorphic testing in advanced fields (such as deep learning based systems, quantum software, etc.);
Case studies related to metamorphic testing;
Development of metamorphic testing tools;
Experimental studies on metamorphic testing;
Combination of metamorphic testing with other testing techniques;
New perspectives or theories inspired by metamorphic testing.
Submission Guidelines
Authors should prepare their manuscript according to the Guide for Authors of the Journal “Software Testing, Verification and Reliability”. The submission site is https://wiley.atyponrex.com/dashboard?siteName=STVR.
Please select “Metamorphic Testing” in the submission system. All the papers will be peer-reviewed following the journal’s reviewing procedures. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Important Dates
Initial Submission: July 1, 2023 (extended to July 15, 2023)
First Decision: August 15, 2023
Revised Paper Submission: October 1, 2023
Second (Final) Decision: October 30, 2023
Guest Editors
Chang-ai Sun (孙昌爱)
Professor
School of Computer and Communication Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
Emai: casun@ustb.edu.cn
Zheng Zheng (郑征)
Professor
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering,
Beihang University, China
Email: zhengz@buaa.du.cn
Xiaoyuan Xie (谢晓园)
Professor
School of Computer Science,
Wuhan University, China
Email: xxie@whu.edu.cn
Dan Hao (郝丹)
Professor
School of Computer Science,
Peking University, China
Email: haod@sei.pku.edu.cn
Tsong Yueh Chen (陈宗岳)
Professor
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering,
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Email: tychen@swin.edu.au