Methods for artificial evolution of active components are rapidly developing branches of adaptive computation and adaptive engineering. They entail the development, evaluation and application of methods that mirror the process of neo-Darwinian evolution. Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines reports innovative and significant progress in automatic evolution of software and hardware. It features both theoretical and application papers and covers hardware implementations, artificial life, molecular computing and emergent computation techniques.

In addition to its main topics, the journal covers related topics such as evolutionary algorithms with variable-size genomes, alternate methods of program induction, approaches to engineering systems development based on embryology, morphogenesis or other techniques inspired by adaptive natural systems.