Provably Correct Systems: Community, connections, and citations

Abstract

The original European ESPRIT ProCoS I and II projects on Provably Correct Systems} took place around a quarter of a century ago. Since then the legacy of the initiative has spawned many researchers with careers in formal methods. One of the leaders on the ProCoS projects was Ernst-R\"udiger Olderog. This paper charts the influence of the ProCoS projects and the subsequent ProCoS-WG Working Group, using Prof. Dr Olderog as an example. The community of researchers surrounding an initiative such as ProCoS is considered in the context of the social science concept of a Community of Practice (CoP) and the collaborations undertaken through coauthorship of and citations to publications. Consideration of citation metrics is also included.