BUIP211: Continuing the Publication Grant to Ledger Journal
Submitted by Richard Burley
Sponsored by Andrew Clifford
Continuing Publication Grant to the Journal Ledger
Thanks to the generous support of B.U. through BUIP163, Ledger was able to weather the COVID years, continue publishing high quality articles, and begin an ambitious plan to increase publication numbers without sacrificing academic rigor. Now in a position to undertake new initiatives, the journal is seeking continued funding while it looks for additional sources of support in order to become more resilient and self-sufficient while continuing to grow.
The Successes of BUIP163
The time since the passing of BUIP163 has been a story of challenge and recovery, none of which would have been possible without the generous support of B.U. The most precarious year for the journal was 2022, when, due to the confluence of the âcrypto winterâ and a COVID-induced burnout that was afflicting academia, the journal was only able to publish two high-quality articles. This was an achievement in itself: other comparable journals in the space either went on hiatus or folded entirely. In 2023, however, Ledger was able to raise the number of peer-reviewed publications to five. So far in 2024, the journal has already published four articles, two more have passed peer review and are in copyediting, and there are several promising submissions currently undergoing reviewâand this is in addition to partnerships with INATBA and ChainScience for a new style of âinvitationalâ issues.
This upward trajectory began in 2021, when Ledgerâs Editorial Team performed its first ever search for an Editor-in-Chief, landing Professor Claudio J. Tessone, Professor of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies at the Informatics Department of the University of Zurich, and Chairman of the UZH Blockchain Center. Since his tenure with Ledger began in 2022, he has helped to steer the journal and to forge ties with academics and institutions around the world, raising Ledgerâs reputation and drawing new interest from diverse parts of academia.
Simultaneously, the Editorial Team began efforts to attract more high-quality research. At the heart of these efforts is the idea of partnering with international organizations running cryptocurrency research conferences to create peer-reviewed invitational issues. The first of these, a ChainScience 2023 âmini-issueâ coming this fall, will present two of the invited papersâ research from that conference. The second, a partnership with INATBA to publish a selection of peer-reviewed papers from their Blockchain Horizons conference earlier this year, is in the peer-review stage. The next, from the 2024 ChainScience conference, is already in the early stages, awaiting final submissions from the authors in October.
In addition, as a part of our growth plan, we are currently undertaking a refresh of the journalâs Editorial Board, reaching out to academics and industry experts who are willing and able to help steer the journal, grow its reputation, and facilitate outreach for reviews and fundraising.
Looking Ahead
Many of these effortsâfrom running the search for an Editor-in-Chief, to coordinating and running meetings of the Editorial Team, to organizing the invitational issues, to networking with possible funding sources, managing the review process, liaising with the journalâs publishing service at the University of Pittsburgh, and even copyediting and proofreading all the papers that pass reviewâhave been the responsibility of the journalâs sole paid staff member, the Managing Editor.
Bitcoin Unlimited has a long-term research and development role in the cryptocurrency community, testified to by its longstanding work on its full-node software, but evidenced most recently by its progress in the development of Nexa as a solution to Vitalik Buterinâs âscalability trilemma.â In this regard, support for Ledger is a good fit with B.U.'s R&D work. Several important papers from prominent members of our community (including Peter Rizun and Tom Harding) have been published in Ledger. In a time where misinformation about cryptocurrencies and other distributed ledger technologies is still rampant, and often malicious, Ledger remains a trustworthy source maintained by the hard work of its largely volunteer editorial staff.
While the journal has begun its plan to gather sustainable funding from a waivable author-fee model (for academics who submit research to the journal funded by large grants, which typically earmark several thousand dollars per paper for publication costs), these fees are not yet sufficient to cover the full-time Managing Editor position that is necessary for the continuation of the journal. In order to secure the future of Ledger, efforts are now being undertaken to develop a donor base to make up the difference between fees and costs. In the meantime, Ledger is seeking funding for its Managing Editor position for a term of three years, renewable with the passing of another BUIP at that time.
Budget: $40,000 per annum for three years, renewable by BUIP in 2027.