Constraints Journal Special Issue
on Modeling and Reformulation

in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Workshop on Constraint Modelling and Reformulation

**EXTENDED Submission Deadline**: March 4, 2012

OVERVIEW

A central aspect of using any reasoning or optimization tools to solve problems is expressing the problem within the language of the tool. While Constraint Programming is pursuing the goal of simple declarative problem modeling ("model and press 'solve'"), it is still often the case that building a high-performance model for a problem represents a significant effort in modeling, re-modeling, and reformulation. Similar challenges are encountered in related areas such as mixed-integer programming and SAT solving.

In honour of the Tenth edition of the International Workshop on Constraint Modeling and Reformulation (ModRef 2011) the Constraints journal solicits submissions for a special issue. While we encourage submissions of extended versions of papers that have appeared in previous ModRef workshops, this is an open call with no such requirement.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

These include, but are not limited to:
  • Problem Models
    • novel, improved problem formulations
    • novel problems that can be formulated and successfully solved as CSPs
  • Automated Modeling and Reformulation
    • Automated generation of implied constraints
    • Automated generation of symmetry-breaking constraints
    • Automated generation of constraints to exploit dominance relations
    • Automated generation of relaxations
  • Constraint Modeling Languages
    • Abstraction in constraint languages
    • Abstract variable domains
    • Abstraction in search control
    • Automated refinement
  • Interaction between Modeling/Reformulation and Search
  • Interaction between Modeling/Reformulation and Propagation
  • Applications of Automated Modeling Systems
  • Overviews of Modeling and Reformulation research in other closely related areas such as mathematical programming and SAT solving

PAPER FORMATS

We are looking for papers that fit into any of the formats that Constraints publishes. In particular:

  1. Standard research papers - papers that contain original work and make a significant contribution to the field of Constraint Modelling and Reformulation.
  2. Survey papers - papers that review modeling and reformation within CP or other areas that are of particular interest to the CP community (e.g., mathematical programming, SAT). If you plan to submit such a paper, please contact the guest editors as soon as possible as we would like to avoid submissions of overlapping survey papers.
  3. Application papers - papers the describe real-life applications of CP where modeling and reformulation play a central role in the success of the application.
  4. Letters - short papers presenting that makes a significant contribution but does not require a full-size journal paper.
We are also interested in more speculative papers that, for example, extrapolate current research and practice to indicate trends, opportunities, and research topics over the next 10 years (e.g., ten challenge problems in modeling and reformulation).

GUEST EDITORS

Andrea Rendl Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
J. Christopher Beck University of Toronto, Canada

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline Sunday, 4 March 2012 UTC-12
Results of First Round of Reviewing May 2012
Camera-Ready Copy deadline Summer 2012

SUBMISSION

All submission will be refereed to the usual standards of the Constraints journal. Final decisions on acceptance will be made by the guest editors in consultation with the editor-in-chief.

Submissions will be made through the Constraints online submission system at http://cons.edmgr.com. Please select the article type "SI: Modeling and Reformulation" at submission time. Author's instructions can be found here.

last update: November 23, 2011