Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission is a PDF file, created using the appropriate Ledger document template.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  • A cover letter will be uploaded in Step 4 of the submission process ("upload supplementary files") that briefly describes what is novel about the submission and how the work fits within the scope of the journal. The cover letter should also include a list of at least three suggested reviewers along with their contact information.  Authors are recommended to base their cover letter of Ledger's Cover Letter Template.
  • I have read and understand the fee schedule and will copy and paste one of the following into the "Comments for the Editor" field below, with the understanding that no fees will be invoiced until my article has passed peer review and is ready for publication in the journal:

    1. I am not institutionally supported and would like my fees fully waived.

    2. I am institutionally supported without funding and would like my fees fully waived.

    3. I am institutionally supported with partial funding and would like my fees partially waived.

    4. I am institutionally supported and happy to financially support Ledger in the full amount of $1500.
  • I have read Ledger's Conflict of Interest Policy and agree to declare any and all conflicts involving myself or my coauthors in the "Comments for the Editor" field below. If there are no conflicts, I will declare that there are no conflicts in the "Comments for the Editor" field below.

Author Guidelines

The author guidelines for Ledger can be downloaded in PDF format here.  This document is formatted based on the stylistic requirements of the journal, and thus also serves as a useful example to which prospective authors can refer.

Authors should prepare their papers using either Ledger's template for MS Word or for LaTeX (the zip file includes the Ledger class file, a sample .tex file, and the Ledger BibTeX files. Please also note that, as a .zip file, some browsers may require you to right-click and "save link as" in order to download). With regard to referencing, please note that (a) if you submit your paper in Word form, and it is accepted for publication, we will ask that you align your citation style with our in-house style, including using the endnote and cross-reference functions in Word, and (b) if you submit your paper in LaTeX form, and it is accepted for publication, we will ask that you limit the contents of your .bib file to only the entries and notes cited in your submission, both of these help to speed the copyediting process and we appreciate your consideration.

Guidelines For Writing Your Cover Letter and Suggesting Reviewers

Ledger is a multidisciplinary journal and receives a broad spectrum of submissions. Submissions to Ledger should be accompanied by a cover letter that—in addition to briefly describing what is novel about the submission and how the work fits within the scope of the journal—suggests three potential reviewers. Reviewers should be:

  • Experts in the subject matter,
  • Disinterested (i.e. not collaborators or personal friends).
  • You do not need to know the reviewers beforehand, and a good starting point for finding reviewers are the authors of the related work you cite in your paper.

Authors are recommended to base their cover letter of Ledger's Cover Letter Template.  

Authors are expected to have read and to comply with the journal's Conflict of Interest Policy.

Cover Art

Ledger welcomes the submission of artwork for consideration as a cover for a future issue of the journal.  Below is a sample of a possible cover.

Research Articles

Manuscripts describing original research related to cryptocurrency and its intersection with mathematics, computer science, economics and law. Research articles should be no longer than 4000 words in length, and are assessed based on conceptual advancement, novelty, relevance, and technical quality.

Review Articles

Review articles aggregating all of the relevant and latest research on a particular subject related to cryptocurrency. Reviews should be limited to 6000 words, although longer articles will be considered. It is suggested that potential authors of review papers contact the journal staff to gauge the suitability of the topic for publication.

Correspondence

Comments and criticisms on articles published in Ledger.

Proceedings Articles

Manuscripts describing original research presented at relevant conferences and symposiums. Proceedings articles are edited by the external editors responsible for the conferences, and are assessed based upon stated criteria in each proceedings issue's editorial introduction.

ChainScience Invitational Articles

Papers published under this section are developed from presentations given at the annual ChainScience Conference. Authors are invited to submit based on an internal review panel, and submitted papers must pass peer review in the same manner as Research and Review articles. 

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
  9. The Author agrees to digitally sign the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link. 

Privacy Statement

This policy statement explains what information we collect when visitors use our services and how we manage that information. It supersedes previous statements and is effective as of October 9, 2020. 

Ledger collects information when visitors create an account, submit manuscripts for review, sign up for the newsletter, or when they visit the website.  

When you create an account, we collect contact and professional affiliation information as well as automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address). When you submit manuscripts for review, we collect contact information, payment information where it applies, and automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address). We collect these to be able to open and maintain your account and our communication with our users, to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content, to be able to process submissions and payments, to monitor and improve our services, and to comply with legal obligations. When you visit the website, we may collect automated information and analytics (e.g. IP address) to improve our services and to develop insights into readership behaviors and geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication. We store the data only for as long as it is necessary for us to fulfill the purposes stated above. Payment and billing data may be stored for longer to comply with legal and accounting obligations.  

We do not sell your information to anyone. We may share data that will assist in developing this publishing platform with the developer, Public Knowledge Project, in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. 

Our newsletter platform is provided by and managed by Mailchimp. When signing up for our newsletter through Mailchimp, you agree to Mailchimp’s privacy and data protection policies; for more information please see Mailchimp's policies.  

As an open-access academic journal, we continually try to balance the competing interests of privacy and information access. Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights.” The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing. Public availability of certain data (such as viewing and citation metrics, corresponding author contact information, Ledger’s open review process, etc.) are integral to the process of running the journal, and in submitting a paper for review and publication you agree to allow us to do our best to strike that balance in as responsible a manner as we can. In that direction, you have the right to access your data, and to have your data amended or deleted as long as this does not unreasonably curtail our legal rights or violate this privacy policy, and we stipulate that we maintain industry standard mechanisms to ensure that your data is secure and that you are in control.    

For any questions regarding privacy and data protection, please contact us at ledger.editors@pitt.edu. 

When you submit articles for review, your submission will be kept confidential and private between you (the author), members of the editorial team, and the reviewers. Under US patent law, the public disclosure date in most cases is the date, after acceptance of the paper, that it is posted on the journal’s website. The submission and review phase is confidential and under normal circumstances is not considered to be a public disclosure. Authors are strongly advised to consult with their patent lawyer prior to submitting confidential material to Ledger.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy. If we modify it in any way that affects your rights, we will notify you in an appropriate way before the changes come into effect.