Call for papers: IACR Communications in Cryptology

Submit a paper to Volume 2, Issue 3

Communications in Cryptology is a journal for original research papers which welcomes submissions on any topic in cryptology. This covers all research topics in cryptography and cryptanalysis, including but not limited to

• foundational theory and mathematics
• the design, proposal, and analysis of cryptographic primitives and protocols
• secure implementation and optimization in hardware or software
• real-world aspects of cryptography and its general application

The CiC accepts original research works, and also invites submission of survey and historical articles on the above topics. However, the CiC does not accept "full versions" of work that is already formally published (which excludes the IACR eprint and similar archives).

The page limit for regular papers is 20 pages excluding bibliography. Authors are encouraged to include supplementary material that can assist reviewers in verifying the validity of the results at the end of the paper. Supplementary material that does not require extra reviewing effort (such as test values, source code, or charts) will be published with the paper, but is not included in the page count. However, material that requires careful reviewing (such as proofs of the main theorems) will be included in the page count, even if it is put in the supplementary material or an appendix.

If authors believe that more details are essential to substantiate the claims of their paper or to provide proofs, they can submit a longer paper (with no page limit); this should be indicated in the submission process by choosing the option “long paper”. For long papers of up to 40 pages, the decision may be deferred to the next round at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief to allow for sufficient time to carefully review the work. For papers longer than 40 pages, the first round of review may be dedicated only to evaluating whether the length of the papers is justified by the scientific contribution. Moreover, the decision may be deferred by one or more rounds at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief.

Submissions must not substantially duplicate published work or work that has been submitted in parallel to any other journal or conference/workshop with published proceedings, and cannot be submitted to any other venue before the notification date. Accepted submissions may not appear in any other conference or workshop that has proceedings. The IACR reserves the right to share information about submissions with other program committees to detect parallel submissions and the CiC Policy on Irregular Submissions will be strictly enforced. Making a preprint available online, for example via the IACR ePrint archive, is not considered a prior publication in this context.

Submitting authors must follow the CiC publication ethics and duties for authors as explained here.

Policy on the use of AI tools

IACR now follows the ACM Policy on the use of AI tools

Can I use generative AI software tools to prepare my manuscript?

Yes, the use of such tools is permitted, subject to the following requirements:

1. That these systems do not plagiarize, misrepresent, or falsify content in IACR CiC submissions.
2. That the resulting paper in its totality is an accurate representation of the authors’ underlying work and novel intellectual contributions and is not primarily the result of the tool’s generative capabilities.
3. That the authors accept responsibility for the veracity and correctness of all material in their paper, including any computer-generated material.

If I use generative AI software tools, under what conditions must I disclose their use in my paper?

Today’s generative AI software tools perform different tasks and it is reasonable to expect that their use and use cases will expand and become more robust over time. Whether disclosure in your published IACR CiC paper is necessary depends on how you utilize these tools. The following guidelines should be followed when determining whether and to what extent disclosure must be provided in your paper.

1. If you are using generative AI software tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or other similar tools to generate new content such as text, images, tables, code, etc. you must disclose their use in either the acknowledgements section of the paper or elsewhere in the paper prominently. The level of disclosure should be commensurate with the proportion of new text or content generated by these tools.
2. If entire sections of a paper, including tables, graphs, images, and other content were generated by one of these tools, you should disclose which sections and which tools and tool versions you used to generate those sections by preparing an Appendix or a Supplementary Material document that describes the use, including but not limited to the specific tools and versions, the text of the prompts provided as input, and any post-generation editing (such as rephrasing the generated text). Authors should also note that the amount or type of generated text allowable may vary depending on the type of the section or paper affected. For example, using such tools to generate portions of a Related Work section is fundamentally different than generating novel results or interpretations.
3. If the amount of text being generated is small (limited to phrases or sentences), then it would be sufficient to add a footnote to the relevant section of the submission utilizing the system(s) and include a general disclaimer in the Acknowledgements section.
4. If you are using generative AI software tools to edit and improve the quality of your existing text in much the same way you would use a typing assistant like Grammarly to improve spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement or to use a basic word processing system to correct spelling or grammar, it is not necessary to disclose such usage of these tools in your paper.

Can a generative AI tool be listed as an author?

No, generative AI software tools cannot be listed as authors on IACR CiC under any conditions.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors and Editorial Board members must follow the CiC Conflicts of Interest policy available here.

It is the responsibility of all authors to ensure correct reporting of CoI information. Submissions with incorrect or incomplete CoI information may be rejected without consideration of their merits.

Areas

There are six areas defined for the 2025 issues, each with their own chair. In case you do not find any area for your paper choose the one you consider nearest or contact the Editors-in-Chief.