Viewpoint Program Vwification: Public Image and Private Reality

Editor’s Note: Shortly after Communications pub, ished James Fetzer’s “Program Verifica !ion: The Very Idea” [September 1988, p. 10481, a large volume of negative mail began to arrive from researchers engaged in program verification. The uniters raised questions about the responsibilities of the author, editors, and reviewers, and about the publications policies of ACM. The issue of accurate reporting of science and accurate representation of research has heated up in recent years throughout all disziplines [See Selling Science, by Dorol,hy Nelkin, Freeman, 19871, and it is nc surprise to encounter it in ACM. At my invitation, Dobson and Randell prepared this analysis; they offer a new c#mtext for observing the situation, a context that applies to many other similar situations as well. The Forum and Technical Correspondence sections of this issue contain the letters and respon;e from the author.PJD