Aims and scope

Designs, Codes and Cryptography is an archival peer-reviewed technical journal publishing original research papers in the designated areas. There is a great deal of activity in design theory, coding theory and cryptography, including a substantial amount of research which brings together more than one of the subjects. While many journals exist for each of the individual areas, few encourage the interaction of the disciplines.   

The journal was founded to meet the needs of mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists working in these areas, whose interests extend beyond the bounds of any one of the individual disciplines. The journal provides a forum for high quality research in its three areas, with papers touching more than one of the areas especially welcome.    

The journal also considers high quality submissions in the closely related areas of finite fields and finite geometries, which provide important tools for both the construction and the actual application of designs, codes and cryptographic systems. In particular, it includes (mostly theoretical) papers on computational aspects of finite fields. It also considers topics in sequence design, which frequently admit equivalent formulations in the journal’s main areas.     

Designs, Codes and Cryptography is mathematically oriented, emphasizing the algebraic and geometric aspects of the areas it covers. The journal considers high quality papers of both a theoretical and a practical nature, provided they contain a substantial amount of mathematics.    

The journal is published twelve times per year with distribution to mathematicians, engineers, computer scientists and others in education, industry and government. It appeals to those mathematicians with an interest in seeing deep theoretical results in discrete mathematics applied, to those engineers who appreciate the beauty and usefulness of discrete mathematics and to those computer scientists who are interested in data security, complexity issues and reliable data transmission and storage.  

The journal maintains strict refereeing procedures and no paper previously published in another journal, transactions or book will be considered. The journal also publishes a small number of survey articles but welcomes high quality surveys on major topics of current interest; such projects must be discussed with the Editors-in-Chief in advance. Submissions extending previously published conference papers are only considered if they provide a significant contribution beyond the conference paper and the overlap is described clearly at the beginning of the journal submission.  

Special Issue on WCC 2024
Submission Date: 2024-09-20

Please note that all submissions are by invite-only
Guest Editors: Daniele Bartoli, Christina Boura, María Naya-Plasencia, and Alain Couvreur

Special Issue on Code-based Cryptography
Submission Date: 2024-10-15

Aims and Scope

The steady advances in quantum technologies are imposing one of the greatest challenges upon cryptography in recent times: the transition to post-quantum.

Code-based cryptography is one of the main candidates for providing quantum-safe schemes, and comes with a long history and well-founded security. This is demonstrated in the two calls by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the standardisation of post-quantum cryptography. In the fourth and final round of the first call, the security of all the remaining key-establishment schemes relies on the hardness of well-known coding problems. The new call for signatures reflects the rapid development of code-based cryptography, as several proposals are based on novel coding problems.

This special issue aims at capturing the recent advances of code-based cryptography, displaying its diversity and contributing to the enhancement of future schemes. We invite submissions focusing on all aspects of code-based cryptography, including, but not limited to, new cryptographic designs whose security is based on coding problems, classical and quantum cryptanalysis of code-based schemes, novel coding problems with cryptographic applications, and security proofs. We also welcome submissions discussing side-channel attacks and counter-measures, and more broadly, the secure and efficient implementation of code-based cryptography.

Keywords

     cryptography
    algebraic codes
    designs and primitives
    code-based cryptography
    cryptanalysis (classical and quantum)
    coding problems
    secure implementation
    reductions

Submission Guidelines

Designs, Codes and Cryptography adheres to the standard Peer Review Policy, Process and Guidance as outlined by Springer under Editorial Policies in the Information for Journal Authors web page.

All papers submitted to the Special Issue must be prepared in accordance with the Journal guidelines, and should present original, unpublished work, on the topic of code-based cryptography. It is the policy of the journal that no submission, or substantially overlapping submission, be published or be under review at another journal or conference at any time during the peer review process.

All submissions will be subject to the Designs, Codes and Cryptography’s rigorous peer review policy, by at least two reviewers. This evaluation will cover the following aspects, but will not be limited to: relevance, significance of contribution to the field, technical quality, scholarship, and quality of presentation. Final decisions on all papers are made by the Editors-in-Chief.

Special Issue Guest Editors

Carlos Cid (Simula UiB and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology – carlos@simula.no)
Thomas Debris-Alazard (Inria and Ecole Polytechnique – ´ thomas.debris@inria.fr)
Violetta Weger (Technical University of Munich – violetta.weger@tum.de)

Important Dates

    First Submission Deadline: May 31, 2024
    Second Submission Deadline: October 15, 2024
    First Authors Notification: September 15, 2024
    Second Authors Notification: February 1, 2025
    Special Issue Publication: July 2025

Special Issue on Codes, Designs and Finite Geometries - A tribute to Jennifer D. Key
Submission Date: 2025-01-31

By invitation only.