The publication of Ledger, a new academic journal with an editorial team including many notable academics and bitcoiners, will start in 2016. Submissions to the first issue can be sent until 31 December 2015.

The new journal aims to address the emerging and “highly interdisciplinary” field of research – cryptocurrency studies. It is going to publish “full-length original research articles on the subjects of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as well as any relevant intersections with mathematics, computer science, engineering, law, and economics”. Papers on social and philosophic implications of the bitcoin digital currency are also welcome – if they do not exceed four thousand words. The first issue will be published in 2016 and the deadline for submissions is 31 December 2015.

Ledger will be published by the University of Pittsburgh but the editorial team also includes professors from Oxford, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley and other famous universities. Some of the names may be already familiar to CoinFox readers, such as Elaine Shi, of Cornell University, or Houman Shadab, from New York Law School. The editorial team also includes well-known cryptocurrency figures, namely Jerry Brito of Coin Center and Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum. The managing editors are Dr. Peter P. Rizun, from Vancouver, and Prof. Christopher E. Wilmer, of University of Pittsburgh. The idea to create such a journal was born, according to Motherboard, from a Bitcointalk forum discussion between Rizun and Wilmer. 

Everything is planned to be open and transparent. The authors do not need to pay any fees to publish their articles. The readers will be able to access Ledger for free. The texts will be peer-reviewedby other experts in the field of cryptocurrency. The authors are welcomed to sign their manuscripts digitally. Finally, all the published texts will be time-stamped in the bitcoin blockchain, to which the name of the new journal evidently alludes.

Alexey Tereshchenko