New academic journal Ledger focuses on cryptocurrency research

A sample of a possible cover.

Ledger is a new peer-reviewed scholarly journal that will publish full-length, original research papers focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as well as any relevant intersections with computer science, economics, engineering, law and math.

To be published online by the University of Pittsburgh on a quarterly basis, Ledger is open access to all readers, does not charge fees to authors, uses a transparent peer-review process, encourages authors to digitally sign their manuscripts and timestamps the published research in the blockchain.

In its article about the journal’s launch, Motherboard reported that the idea for Ledger emerged during a discussion between managing editors Dr. Peter R. Rizun and Professor Christopher E. Wilmer on the bitcoin.org forum.

“I wanted to build an academic and interdisciplinary communication channel that would allow bright minds in economics, sociology, physics, law and political science to contribute at the highest-level towards the evolution,” said Rizun to Motherboard.

The online magazine noted the journal has a stellar editorial board, which includes representation from MIT, Oxford and Stanford.

Coin Center Executive Director Jerry Brito

Also on the board is Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, who said in a blog post about Ledger’s launch that his organization “has looked at some of the policy and legal aspects of Bitcoin, yet there is a growing need for traditional academic research to investigate this growing list of questions.”

Coin Center has lent financial support to the journal.

As reported by Motherboard, former lead Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen said he is glad to see the journal launch and is “looking forward to absorbing the great research that will be published there.” Andresen is now Developer, Digital Currency at the MIT Media Lab, which partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to launch Ledger.

Last week the journal launched a call for papers for its inaugural issue. Ledger is welcoming papers of up to 4,000 words “detailing new ideas and perspectives on any relevant topic, including but not limited to the technical, social, economic, and philosophical developments and implications of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, public and decentralized ledgers, distributed consensus, and more.”

The deadline for submissions for the first issue is December 31, 2015. The journal will consider submissions after that date for later issues on an ongoing basis.

Image credits:

Sample cover – via Ledger’s Author Guidelines page (CC BY 4.0)

Jerry Brito’s photo – via CoinCenter.org’s About page (CC BY-SA 3.0 US)