Call for Papers


Photo credits: Glasgow Life


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.

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


Topics of interest

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

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. 

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

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 work do not need to omit author information. To facilitate the review process, authors should mention on the first page (e.g., in the title) where this paper has been published or accepted for publication. For example, write in the title: "A fascinating new search algorithm that beats A* (accepted for AAAI-2024)".

Extended abstracts representing under-reviewed work should omit author names and affiliations.  To facilitate the review process, authors should mention on the first page (e.g., in the title) where this paper is currently under review. For example, write in the title: "A fascinating new search algorithm that beats A* (under review for AAAI-2024)". 

Extended abstracts representing other types of work should also omit author names and affiliations.

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. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. Authors will be required to confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission.

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.