The International Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of SysTems (QEST) is the leading forum on quantitative evaluation and verification of computer systems and networks. Areas of interest include quantitative specification methods, stochastic and non-deterministic models and metrics for performance, reliability, safety, correctness, and security. QEST is interested in both theoretical and experimental research. QEST welcomes a diversity of modelling formalisms, programming languages and methodologies that incorporate quantitative aspects such as probabilities, temporal properties and other forms of non-determinism. Papers may advance empirical, simulation and analytic methods. Of particular interest are case studies that highlight the role of quantitative specification, modelling and evaluation in the design of systems. Systems of interest include computer hardware and software architectures, communication systems, cyber-physical systems, infrastructural systems, and biological systems. Papers that describe novel tools to support the practical application of research results in all of the above areas are also welcome.

To encourage submissions of papers in frontier topics, submissions in selected areas are encouraged. Paper submitted to special sessions will be treated as regular submitted papers, they will be peer reviewed, and subject to the same quality requirements. A special session with accepted papers on the selected topics will be organised during the conference. This year selected topics are:

• Quantitative aspects of system security
  

  Security of computer systems relies critically on the control of confidential information. In recent years there has been great interest in measuring various aspects of system behaviour that can impact untoward release of secret information. There is a general recognition that it is not possible to avoid all information leaks and therefore it has become important to determine whether a particular leak constitutes a serious breach.

  We solicit papers on the topic of measurement of quantitative aspects of system security. We are interested in new theoretical perspectives on this problem as well as practicalities of implementation and case studies show casing new techniques.

• Industrial strength techniques
  

  We call for contributions on quantitative techniques focussing on industrial applications. We are particularly interested in techniques that have the potential to scale up or address important safety, security, performance or reliability aspects of industrial strength systems. We are interested both in new techniques and experience reports of applying quantitative analysis in an industrial setting.

Extended versions of the best papers will be considered for possible fast-track publication in the ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (TOMPECS).

Abstract submission:	28 March 2018
Paper submission:	4 April 2018, extended and firm (anywhere on earth)
Author notification:	30 May 2018
Final version due:	22 June 2018
Conference:	4-7 September 2018

All accepted papers (including tool demonstrations) must be presented at the conference by one of the authors. The QEST 2018 proceedings will be published in the Springer LNCS series and indexed by ISI Web of Science, Scopus, ACM Digital Library, dblp, Google Scholar. All submitted papers will be evaluated by at least three reviewers on the basis of their originality, technical quality, scientific or practical contribution to the state of the art, methodology, clarity, and adequacy of references.

QEST considers five types of papers:

• Theoretical: advance our understanding, apply to non-trivial problems and be mathematically rigorous.
• Methodological and technical: describe situations that require the development and proposal of new analysis processes and techniques.
• Application: describes a novel application, and compares with previous results.
• Tools: should motivate the development of the new tools and the formalisms they support, with a focus on the software architecture and practical capabilities.
• Tool demonstration: describe a relevant tool, as well as its features, evaluation, or any other information that may demonstrate the merits of the tool.

Submissions must be prepared in LaTeX, following Springer's LNCS guidelines. Submitted papers should not exceed 16 pages (4 pages for tool demonstrations). Papers must be unpublished and not be submitted for publication elsewhere. Authors of tool papers (both regular and demonstration) must make their tools and input data available to reviewers; reproducibility of results will be taken into account during the evaluation process, and the conference will include a demo session. Authors should present use cases, distinctive features, and computational/memory requirements through motivating examples. Theoretical background needs not be presented in tool demonstration papers; substantial improvements are required for existing tools.

Papers should be submitted electronically using the EasyChair online submission system.

All accepted papers (including tool demonstrations) must be presented at the conference by one of the authors.