IACR Opens the Cryptology ePrint Archive

The Cryptology ePrint Archive (http://eprint.iacr.org) provides rapid access to recent research in cryptology. Papers can be placed there by the authors and do not undergo any refereeing process other than verifying that the work seems to be within the scope of cryptology.

The Cryptology ePrint Archive replaces the smaller Theory of Cryptology Library, located at http://philby.ucsd.edu, an early preprint server for cryptology started by Oded Goldreich in 1996 and later maintained by Mihir Bellare and Bennet Yee at UCSD. It is planned to integrate the 1996-1999 contents of the Theory of Cryptology Library into the Cryptology ePrint Archive, but has not been done yet (Feb. 2000).

The Cryptology ePrint Archive operates as follows:

any author can submit a paper with a technical contribution in the field of cryptology;
the refereeing process is minimal: the only verification on the content of the paper is that it is really dealing with research in cryptology; no refereeing for quality or correctness is performed;
new submissions need approval by the editor;
the interface is automated: retrieval, submission, and revisions are done by scripts on the server (please keep that in mind!);
every submitter can remove his paper (for example if a mistake is found), but the archive always keeps the title and abstract of the paper;
authors can update their papers at any time;
authors can add comments on the further history of the paper (such as a reference to publication in a journal or conference, or to a new paper subsuming this work);

Hopefully, this archive will become an important place for the rapid exchange of ideas among researchers in cryptography.

Christian Cachin