Journal of Cryptology Call for Papers: Topical Collection on Modern Zero-Knowledge Protocols

To encourage more submissions to Journal of Cryptology (JoC), we are having more Topical Collections. Topical Collections are a kind of virtual Special Issues. Papers of a topical collection are published together with ordinary papers in one or more issues, but on the webpage they are indexed twice: once in their issue and once in a separate tab with the name of the Topical Collection. Currently we have three Topical Collections in the JoC and you can see them on the website.

We are now asking for high-quality papers to be submitted for a Topical Collection on Modern Zero-Knowledge; which is broadly conceived as including interactive proof systems, NIZK/NIWI proofs, succinct arguments, verifiable computation, designated-prover/verifier constructions, post-quantum protocols, MPC-based ZK, (non-)malleable proof systems, recursive composition, SNARK-friendly curves and primitives. However, other related topics will be considered in scope.

All aspects of zero-knowledge will be considered, from theoretical aspects to real-life deployment issues, as well as cryptographic applications. We also encourage submission of short (but self contained) papers.

Papers which are extended versions, or merges, of conference papers, are out of scope for this Topical Collection and thus should be submitted to the Journal of Cryptology in the normal way.

Being a Topical Collection, as opposed to a Special Issue, papers are published as soon as they are accepted. They do not need to wait until all papers for a Special Issue are ready. We hope to have a speedy review process for this Topical Collection, and will be reaching out to the community before the closing date to solicit a bank of willing reviewers who will help us in this task of reviewing the submitted papers.

Submissions will be open until July 1st, 2024.

To be considered for this Topical Collection put in the keywords field of the submission site the phrase "Topical Collection on Modern Zero-knowledge"

We hope to send reviews to authors within four months of submission, so there is no need to wait for the submission deadline. Assuming no changes are requested, this means papers could be published within six months. If a second round of reviewing is required, we hope to complete this within one year of initial submission.

Questions about this Topical Collection can be sent to the Special Editors: Benoît Libert (first-name dot last-name at zama dot ai) and Carla Ràfols (first-name dot last-name at upf dot edu)