ICFP

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 18th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP '13, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

ICFP is a forum for researchers and practitioners to hear about the latest developments in the art and science of functional programming. The conference covers the entire spectrum of work, from theory to practice.

This year's call for papers attracted 133 submissions, which is an all-time record for ICFP: 115 regular research papers, 11 functional pearls and 7 experience reports. From those, the Program Committee selected 40 papers--33 regular papers, 4 functional pearls and 3 experience reports--for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the proceedings. One paper submitted as a regular research paper was recategorized to an experience report, one experience report to a functional pearl, yielding 32 regular papers, 5 functional pearls and 3 experience reports.

Each submission was reviewed by at least 3 people (either PC members or external reviewers). After initial online discussion in the PC, the reviews were communicated to the authors, who then had three days to comment back. Following updating of the reviews and, in several cases, addition of new reviews, as well as further online discussion, the PC met in Munich, Germany, for two days for final decisions. All but two PC members attended the meeting in person. One of them could not make it for personal reasons, the other had his transatlantic flight canceled; they took part by phone. The competition was tough and the PC had to reject many good papers.

Submission by PC members was allowed. There were 7 such submissions. Those were scrutinized against a higher standard; 2 of them were accepted.

Authors had the possibility to submit additional material (such as code or proofs) with their papers, on the understanding that reviewers may choose not to look at it. This was used by the authors of 27 submissions. Authors of papers previously rejected from another conference were given the option to attach the reviews of their previous submission, with their explanations about how they have addressed the criticisms raised. These reviews and comments would be communicated by the Program Chair only to reviewers who identify themselves as reviewers of the earlier version. This option was used by the authors of 5 submissions.

As keynote speakers we are privileged to hear Ulf Norell (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) and Simon Peyton Jones (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK) at ICFP '13.