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The SCSC publishes a range of documents:

Newsletter

The club publishes its newsletter Safety Systems three times a year in February, June and October.  The newsletter is distributed to paid-up members and can be made available in electronic form for inclusion on corporate members' intranet sites.

Symposium proceedings

The proceedings of the annual symposium, held each February since 1993, are published in book form. Since 2013 copies can be purchased from Amazon.

Safety-Critical Systems eJournal

The club publishes the Safety-critical Systems eJournal (ISSN 2754-1118) containing high-quality, peer-reviewed articles on the subject of systems safety.
 If you are interested in being an author or a reviewer please see the Call for Papers.

All publications are available to download free by current SCSC members (please log in first), recent books are available as 'print on demand' from Amazon at reasonable cost.

All PublicationsPage

May 2024
The Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 32, Number 2
Feb 2024
by the SCSC Data Safety Initiative Working Group [DSIWG]
Feb 2024
Proceedings of the Thirty Second Safety-Critical Systems Symposium.
Feb 2024
The Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 32, Number 1
Dec 2023
The Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 31, Numbers 1-3
Oct 2023
The Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 31, Number 3
Aug 2023
[SCSC-186] Safety-Critical Systems eJournal vol.2 no.2
 Journal cover image
Summer Issue 2023
Edited by John Spriggs
Ref: ISSN 2754-1118
Publisher: Safety-Critical Systems Club
Editorial to the 2023 Summer Issue 
Welcome to the second issue of the second volume of the Safety-Critical Systems eJournal, which is  …   

Editorial to the 2023 Summer Issue

 

Welcome to the second issue of the second volume of the Safety-Critical Systems eJournal, which is published by the Safety-Critical Systems Club (SCSC).

Previous editorials have said that the next volume of the Safety-Critical Systems eJournal will start with a themed issue. This has been put back a month so that the themed issue will be the second of the year, published to coincide with the Safety-Critical Systems Symposium, SSS’24. The theme is the technologies underpinning autonomous vehicles and how we assure them. Note that this theme is broad — for example "technologies", as well as vision processing, machine learning, etc., can include things like concepts of operation, regulation, standards, ownership of liability, and so on.

Finally a reminder that this year’s cover image is to highlight the Systems Approach to Safety of the Environment Working Group, which aims to produce clear guidance on how engineered systems should be developed and managed throughout their entire lifecycle so as to preserve, protect and enhance the environment. If you would like to join, or find out more about this group, please go to their page on the SCSC website: https://scsc.uk/ge

John Spriggs SCSC eJournal Editor
john.spriggs@scsc.uk

  
Download:

Contents

Editorial: Summer 2023 Issue - John Spriggs
Paper: Reducing the Risk of a Software Common Mode Failure - Rob Ashmore, Mark Hadley and James Sharp
We describe the nature of a common mode failure, illustrating why software-based components can be particularly susceptible. A number of historical  …    We describe the nature of a common mode failure, illustrating why software-based components can be particularly susceptible. A number of historical accidents and incidents are used to demonstrate this is not just a theoretical risk. Previous academic research, existing standards and historical civil air programmes are surveyed. This shows the importance of software common mode failure is recognised, but there is no preferred way of protecting against it. A set of criteria are proposed, which provide a means of assessing protections that have been implemented within a system design. These are used to highlight approaches to protection that are suggested for future air systems (and other safety-related applications).  
Paper: An IEC 61508 Viewpoint on the Safety Assessment of Railway Control Systems - Derek Fowler and Alasdair Graebner
An article entitled “An IEC 61508 Viewpoint on System Safety in the Transport Sector” in the July 2022 edition of the Safety-critical Systems  …    An article entitled “An IEC 61508 Viewpoint on System Safety in the Transport Sector” in the July 2022 edition of the Safety-critical Systems eJournal, proposed a way of thinking about the safety assessment of transportation systems that is based on the fundamental principles of international functional-safety standard IEC 61508. Then, in a second article (January 2023), an operational example from Air Traffic Management (ATM) was used to outline how an IEC 61508 approach to safety assessment could be applied to the ATM sector. Now, in this article, the example of a new, moving-block Automatic Train Control system, for a hypothetical Metro, is used to outline how an IEC 61508 approach to safety assessment could be applied to the safety assessment of railway control systems in general.  
Paper: Chasing the Black Swan - Malcolm Jones
The term Black Swan is a familiar concept in the context of high consequence operations. There is the continual concern that there may be an ‘as  …    The term Black Swan is a familiar concept in the context of high consequence operations. There is the continual concern that there may be an ‘as yet’ undiscovered flaw or lack of understanding in the design of a product, process or facility that could lead to a catastrophic event. Concern lies in the potential incompleteness of understanding of any design concept, implementation and associated assessment. Given that ‘absolute confidence’ may never be possible, the question arises as to how best to continue to search for such a possible flaw with a view to subsequent removal or mitigation. This at first sight appears to be a process without end but the level of commitment must be balanced against the detrimental consequence that could ensue given that a Black Swan might exist. But when is ‘enough-enough’? This subject is covered in the context of the ownership of nuclear warheads where the Black Swan can indeed be catastrophic should it exist. The paper is framed somewhat in terms of what can be learned from the general literature associated with Black Swan thinking.  
About the Safety-Critical Systems eJournal
May 2023
The Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 31, Number 2