Call for Papers

SoCS 2025

Heuristic search and other forms of combinatorial search and optimization are very active areas of research in artificial intelligence, robotics, planning, constraint programming, meta-reasoning, navigation, bioinformatics, and other areas of computer science and operations research. The International Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS) is meant to bring researchers in such areas together to exchange their ideas and cross-fertilize the field. We especially invite submissions presenting real-world applications of heuristic search.

With CP 2025 and SAT 2025 co-located this year, we particularly welcome papers that explore the intersections between our research topics and the problems studied by these communities.

Submissions are now closed.

All accepted papers will be included in the proceedings published by AAAI Press.

Topics of Interest

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Adversarial search
• Analysis of search algorithms
• Automated synthesis of lower bounds
• Bidirectional search
• Bounding and pruning techniques
• Combinatorial optimization
• Combinatorial puzzles
• Continuous problem solving
• Constraint search
• Deep learning in heuristics and search
• External-memory and parallel search
• Heuristics
• Incremental and active learning in search
• Machine learning for or in search algorithms
• Metareasoning and search
• Methodology and critiques of current practice
• Model-based search
• Multi-agent pathfinding
• Pathfinding
• Portfolios of search algorithms
• Problem compilation
• Problem solving using search
• Random vs. systematic search strategy selection
• Real-life applications
• Real-time search
• Reinforcement learning and search
• Search in goal-directed problem solving
• Search space discretization for continuous state-space problems
• Search-based diagnosis
• Search in boolean satisfiability
• Search in machine learning and big data analytics
• Search methods in robotics
• Self-configuring and self-tuning algorithms
• Symmetry handling
• Time, memory, and solution quality trade-offs

Types of Submissions

We encourage researchers to submit three categories of papers to the symposium:

• Technical papers: Original long (up to 8 pages plus up to one page of references) and short (up to 4 pages plus up to one page of references) papers are the standard category. We welcome technical papers that report substantial original research in search or in related areas that are not under review in other archival conferences or journals.
• Position papers: In addition to the main technical track, we encourage authors to submit original long (up to 8 pages plus up to one page of references) and short (up to 4 pages plus up to one page of references) position papers discussing ideas and concepts related to heuristic and combinatorial search. Examples of position papers could include thoughtful critiques or bold new perspectives of the field, historical perspectives and analysis, technical discussions of various implementation techniques, methodological contributions, and insightful reports on new and demanding applications.
• Extended abstracts: To foster the exchange of ideas at SoCS, we encourage authors to submit extended abstracts (up to 2 pages, including references) of original work, work-in-progress, or work that has recently appeared in or is under review at other venues such as AAAI/ICAPS/IJCAI. Most archival conferences do not consider a 2-page extended abstract as preventing the submission of a full-length technical paper giving full details on the same work. For recently published work, authors can alternatively submit their original published paper for review (no page limit and no need to remove author information, but please indicate on the front page when and where the paper was published). If the submission is accepted, authors will then be required to submit a 2-page abstract for the proceedings. The submitted version itself will not be reprinted in the proceedings. All extended abstract submissions will be lightly reviewed in order to ensure that they are of interest to the SoCS community.

Submission Instructions

• Submitted technical and position papers must be original and not submitted concurrently to a journal or another conference. Double-blind reviewing will be provided, so submitted papers must omit author names and affiliations.

• Extended abstracts representing previously published or under-review work should mention this on the first page (e.g., in the title).

• The paper submission is a two-step process. First, the paper abstract needs to be registered in EasyChair by the Paper abstract submission deadline. Then, the full paper in PDF is due by the Paper submission deadline. Remember, without registering your abstract on time, you will not be allowed to submit the paper later.

• Submissions may be accompanied by supplementary material (video, appendices), which must also be anonymized. Reviewers will not be required to consult such material - submitted paper should stand on their own. The omission of supplementary material will not disadvantage a submission during the review.

• SoCS will not accept any technical or position paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also required not to submit their technical or position papers elsewhere during SoCS's review period.

• Author kit

• Submission link

Important Dates

All deadlines are at 23:59 UTC-12.

• Paper abstract submission deadline: March 19, 2025 (now closed)
• Paper submission deadline: March 26, 2025 (now closed)
• Author response: May 2-5, 2025 (already past)
• Notification: May 16, 2025
• Camera-ready copy: May 30, 2025

Best paper awards

Technical papers will be considered for the best paper award. If the main authors, both in terms of work and writing, are students at the time of submission, the paper will be considered for a best student paper award.

Camera-ready instructions

The page limit for camera-ready copies is the same as the page limit for submission papers. However, the last "reference" page of the long and short papers can include acknowledgment in addition to the references.