The JBBA, the Journal of the British Blockchain Association, is the world’s first peer-reviewed, academic Blockchain journal that is available both inprint, and online. The JBBA is a fully open access journal offering a wide-ranging and comprehensive coverage of all facets of DLT/ Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrencies. We welcome manuscripts reporting Blockchain and DLT research projects, scientific methods, case studies, analysis, reviews and practical use cases of emerging distributed ledger technologies and innovations including sound descriptive work. All research articles undergo a fully ‘double-blind’ peer review process by 2-3 independent, external reviewers.
Why publish in the JBBA?
We are indexed in the Web of Science
We are in the METAVERSE
We are Indexed in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
We are permanently archived at PORTICO
We produce infographics of best research papers click here for more information
We have an ISSN
We are on the Blockchain! ARTiFACTS Blockchain Portal
We are a member of Reviewer Credits
We are on on PUBLONS supporting authors, reviewers and editors
We are offer Language Editing and Translation Services to non-native English speaking authors
**We are a publisher member of CrossRef
We have a JBBA YouTube Channel
We will publish:
Original Scientific Research (Qualitative, Quantitative)
Systematic Reviews
Meta-analysis
Conference Research Abstracts/ Proceedings
Comparative studies
Randomised Control Trials
Case Studies & Essays
Book Reviews
Critical reviews and Analysis
Interviews/ Opinions of Key Influencers/ Thought Leaders
Editorial
Commentary on latest issues and trends in blockchain & DLT
All submissions should be in English. The Editor reserves the right to reject without review. Manuscript queries should be addressed to:
Editorial@thejbba.com
Open Access Policy:
The JBBA is indexed in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). In the best interests of the scientific blockchain community, the JBBA will be freely accessible via the internet for immediate, worldwide, open access, to the full text (with no embargo) of all articles. The JBBA applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) under which all readers will be able to download or print any article at no cost, with no requirements of prior permission from the author or the publisher. We embed machine-readable CC licensing information in article level metadata. We allow readers to read, download, copy, distribute, reuse, remixing, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles under a CC-BY policy and allow the author to hold the copyright without restrictions.
Authors who publish in the Journal will retain these copyrights at all times. The Journal allows the author(s) to retain publishing rights without restrictions. The Journal also allows software/spiders to automatically crawl the journal content (also known as text mining). We provide article-level metadata to DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).
The JBBA provide permanent and unique Digital Object Identifiers (doi) in all papers published by the journal.
The JBBA provides a forum for authors to share their knowledge, skills, experiences and creative work across a wide range of industries and technologies in which Blockchain is being deployed. We will publish:
Aims & Scope of the Journal:
The JBBA attempts to cover the state-of-the-art advances in all aspects of blockchain technology. The international and multidisciplinary nature of this field enables us to cover both theoretical research and technological developments. The JBBA welcome contributions from blockchain scholars & scientists worldwide and will provide a forum for authors to share their knowledge, skills and experiences across a wide range of industries and technologies in which Blockchain is being deployed. The possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Blockchain and Gov-tech
• Cryptocurrencies & Crypto-assets
• Blockchain in Healthcare
• Blockchain in Supply Chain
• Blockchain governance
• Blockchain & Law
• Blockchain & Economics
• Applied Blockchain
• Initial Coin Offerings
• Blockchain for Social Good
• Blockchain and Smart Cities
• Theories of blockchain and its evolution
• Smart contract and Distributed Ledger
• Blockchain and Bitcoin security
• Distributed consensus on resource-limited devices
• Lightweight protocols and algorithms based on blockchain
• Blockchain based IoT security solutions
• Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence
• Blockchain in Social Networking
The JBBA follows the continuous publication model and publish content on a real-time basis on the Journal’s website. All articles are published on line as soon as they become ready. Once published, articles will then be selected for a subsequent print issue, which we aim to publish 2-3 times per year. The JBBA provides a forum for authors to share ‘Proofs of Concepts’, knowledge transfer, ‘Proofs of Impact’, experimentation and experiences across a wide range of industries and technologies in which Blockchain is being deployed.
We may also include a selected mix of articles published on our website. Interviews/ opinions are not peer-reviewed, but all content must be approved by the handling editor to assess suitability for publication. Should you wish to be interviewed by us, please email to:
Waiver policy:
We acknowledge that some authors may be suffering from financial hardships making it difficult for them to pay the APC. The JBBA offers a full waiver to authors in exceptional circumstances, on request. No payment information is requested before an article is reviewed and accepted, so the ability to pay does not affect the editorial decisions at the JBBA. If you believe your request for an APC waiver should be considered on the grounds of exceptional financial circumstances, please write to the Managing Editor explaining your grounds for the request. All such applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Editorial Board.
We offer full APC waiver to authors that permanently reside in the following low-income countries:
Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
APC is waived for full-time students pursuing a postgraduate degree from a recognised institution/ university in one of the following countries:
Guyana, Republic of Moldova ,Angola, Haiti , Rwanda, Bangladesh, Honduras, Samoa, Belize, Iraq, Sao Tome and Principe, Benin, Kiribati, Senegal, Bhutan, Kiribati, Seychelles, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Lao People’s Democratic Republic , Solomon Islands, Burundi, Lesotho, Somalia, Cabo Verde, Liberia, Cambodia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Malawi, St. Helena, Central African Republic , Malawi, Sudan, Chad, Mali, Suriname, Comoros, Marshall Islands, Swaziland, Comoros, Marshall Islands, Swaziland, Congo, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Cook Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Timor-Leste, Côte d’Ivoire, Mongolia, Togo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Morocco, Tokelau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tonga, Djibouti, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Namibia, Tuvalu, Equatorial Guinea, Nauru, Uganda, Eritrea, Nepal, United Republic of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Fiji, Niger, Vanuatu, Gabon, Nigeria, Vietnam, Gambia, Niue, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Ghana, Palau, Yemen, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Guinea, Refugee Camps (UNHCR) Zimbabwe and Guinea-Bissau.
Digital Archiving & Preservation:
JBBA is digitally archived and permanently preserved by Portico. Portico’s digital preservation service is independently audited by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and certified as a trusted, reliable digital preservation solution that serves the needs of the library community (following the general metrics found in their Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification).
Legal Deposit Policy:
All Volumes are legally deposited at the British Library and subsequently deposited at the Agency for the legal Deposit Libraries (ALDL), which acts on behalf of Bodleian Library Oxford University, the Cambridge University Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin.
Publishing Schedule
JBBA publish articles online on a continuous basis. As soon as the article is deemed suitable for publication by the Editor after a review, it is published online. Once every 4-5 months, we compile all published articles together in a print edition and publish the print version.
Duties of Authors:
Authors should submit original research work only (except if it this is clearly not the intention of the article – as might be the case, for example, with a survey paper, interview, analysis, commentary). Any results that are not due to the authors should be clearly cited. Copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another paper without attribution is unacceptable, as is any other form of plagiarism.
No paper should be submitted to JBBA that is already published elsewhere or is being considered for publication by another journal.
Those named as authors of a paper should have made a substantial contribution to the paper, or to a more general project of which the paper is a part, and anybody who has made such a contribution should be offered authorship.
Authors who discover important errors in their articles, whether published or under consideration for publication, should notify the journal promptly.
For the purpose of the journal, following defines an “Author”:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
AND
Final approval of the version to be published;
AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Readers: Letter to the Editor:
Letters to the Editor are a type of short communication on a topic that attracts the attention of the JBBA readers. The letters are a mechanism that facilitates progress and open dialogue after an article has been published in the JBBA. The letter to the Editor must discuss a specific topic, must have a purpose, and conveyed in a short and definitive style. Letters to the Editor should pertain to papers published in The JBBA within the past year or to related topics and should not exceed 250 words.
Letters to the editor should contain objective and constructive interpretations or discussions. Materials which were published or reported elsewhere should not be used. Otherwise, the letter will not be accepted.
You must provide a unique title for the Letter with your complete contact information. The Editors may decide to send Letters to the Author(s) for their comments and/or reply. If the Editor choose to publish the author’s reply, it will be published in the same volume as the Letter to the Editor. Replies are not sent to Letter authors prior to publication. All letters must be formally submitted via JBBA Scholastica and NOT as a direct email to the journal.
Top Tips:
Do not assume a pejorative attitude
Must be courteous and related
Make objective and specific rather than general comments
Instead of biased opinions, your comments should be based on scientific evidence
Use a brief and concise wording
Publisher’s details:
The JBBA is published by The British Blockchain Association.
The British Blockchain Association is the legal owner of the JBBA. The BBA is responsible for management of the journal, Editorial Board appointments, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement of the journal. The BBA is responsible for overall strategic direction, vision, mission, and compliance, and establishing ethical standards and frameworks of the JBBA.
The British Blockchain Association is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by maintaining our own digital archive. Articles in JBBA are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence and will be free to read in perpetuity. The Journal provides article views and article download statistics. The JBBA also provides XML, PDF and Bibtex data.
We aim for a turnaround time of 5 weeks from submission to publication.
Journal sponsors, Academic partners and Advertisement:
The JBBA welcomes academic sponsors/ partners and advertisements for the print edition. Sponsors have no influence whatsoever on the journal’s content, editorial decisions, policies or strategic direction. There are no adverts displayed online on scholastica portal. Adverts are only included in the print version of the issue.
STATEMENT OF PUBLICATON ETHICS:
The JBBA has been committed to publishing the highest quality, peer-reviewed work, and to publishing and review processes that adhere to the strictest ethical standards. Our publication guidelines conform to those set forth by the Coalition on Publication Ethics (COPE). The JBBA publishes papers that have been reviewed and approved by the journal’s Editorial and Review Board. The Editorial Board is comprised of over 70 academics from 50 universities in 6 continents.
Editorial Responsibilities
Editors and Reviewers of the JBBA are are appointed by the British Blockchain Association. The composition of the editorial boards and editorial office contact information is available on journal’s ‘about us’ and ‘editorial board’ pages.
Duties of Editors:
Articles will be evaluated exclusively on the basis of their Blockchain/ Distributed Ledger technologies/ Cryptocurrencies interest and their relevance to the scope of the journal.
Articles under consideration will be kept confidential: that is, it will not be disclosed to anyone other than those involved in the evaluation process and in the administration of the journal.
Editors may submit their own papers to the journal, but if they do so, then all information about the processing of those papers will be hidden from their view and they will have no part in the decision process. Moreover, it is the policy of JBBA to set a slightly higher bar for acceptance for papers submitted by editorial board members. Editors who have a significant conflict of interest connected with a paper will declare it to the other editors and will avoid participating in the decision process.
Duties of Reviewers:
Reviewers asked for quick opinions are expected to be objective and to provide them promptly. Should they have a conflict of interest, or should they lack the expertise to make a judgment with confidence, they should make this clear to the editors and should decline to review the paper.
More detailed manuscripts may take longer to review. For such papers an initial deadline will be set by the handling editor: if it is felt by the reviewer to be unrealistic, then he or she should agree an alternative with the editor. Since a paper that reaches this stage of the reviewing process will normally have been judged to be interesting enough to publish, the focus of the more detailed report should be the correctness of the paper and the quality of its writing. However, opinions about its quality and interest are also welcomed.
Reviewers are expected to keep confidential the information that the paper has been submitted to JBBA, except that if the paper is rejected and the reviewer receives it again to evaluate for another journal, then the information that the paper has been rejected by JBBA may be shared (confidentially) with the editorial board of the other journal.
In some cases, it is not reasonable to expect a reviewer to check the correctness of a paper down to the last detail. In such cases, editors may be satisfied with indirect evidence that a paper is likely to be correct. (For example, it may be that the general outline of the argument is convincing, but that the technical details involved in converting the outline into a complete proof are very complicated.) Thus, publication in JBBA should not be considered an absolute guarantee of correctness, just as in practice it is not a guarantee for any other journal. Readers who discover important errors in JBBA papers are strongly encouraged to report them to the journal: as stated above, if we are made aware of an error, we will add a prominent notification of the error to the editorial introduction to the paper.
If an author subsequently corrects an error and posts a revised version of the paper to the JBBA, the version of record of the paper will remain as the previously accepted version. However, a prominent link to the corrected version will be added to the editorial introduction. JBBA does not normally carry out a detailed copy-editing of the articles. We therefore ask our reviewers to point out minor errors such as spelling mistakes as well as more important mathematical slips. Should there be very numerous, then a more general statement to the effect that the paper should be thoroughly checked for small errors will be sufficient. Authors who discover important errors in their articles, whether published or under consideration for publication, should notify the journal promptly.
Policy on Ethical Oversight and Procedures for Addressing Unethical Behavior
Authors and editors of The JBBA must adhere at all times to the publishing ethics outlined herein. Unethical practices may include, but are not limited to, violations of any of the ethical expectations outlined above, including, but not limited to, plagiarism, authorship falsification, falsification or fabrication of research, redundant or duplicate publication, peer review manipulation, or failure to disclose conflicts of interest. We will follow the COPE flowcharts and may also seek outside advice. If we find conclusive evidence of misconduct we will take steps to correct the scholarly record, which may include issuing a correction or retraction.
**Data Sharing and Availability of Underlying Research Data and Other Materials
The JBBA is a fully open access journal. We support research and scholarship being as transparently and clearly reported as possible, and as such we support the appropriate maximal sharing of underlying important materials under CC-BY open access licence.
Plagiarism Policy & Allegations of Misconduct:
We have a very stringent plagiarism policy in place and all articles are screened on Viper Plagarism Checking Tool for detection of plagiarism. We accept a plagiarism score of less than 10%. This allows the highest possible level of scholarly integrity and transparency in contents published by the JBBA.
Viper website: https://www.scanmyessay.com/
We aim to strictly comply with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for:
Handling allegations of misconduct
Suspected manipulation of peer-review processes
Authorship and contributorship disputes
Complaints and appeals procedures
Conflicts of interest / Competing interests issues
Post-publication discussions and corrections
Testimonials from Readers and Authors:
“The JBBA has an outstandingly streamlined submissions process, the reviewers’ comments have been constructive and valuable, and it is outstandingly well produced, presented and promulgated. It is in my opinion the leading journal for blockchain research and I expect it to maintain that distinction under the direction of its forward-looking leadership team”.
Dr Brendan Markey-Towler PhD, University of Queensland, Australia
“It is really important for a future world to be built around peer-review and publishing in the JBBA is one good way of getting your view-points out there and to be shared by experts”.
Professor Dr. Bill Buchanan OBE PhD, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland
“I always enjoy reading the JBBA.”
Professor Dr Emin Gun Sirer PhD, Cornell University, USA
“The JBBA has my appreciation and respect for having a technical understanding and the fortitude for publishing an article addressing a controversial and poorly understood topic. I say without hesitation that JBBA has no equal in the world of scientific Peer-Review Blockchain Research.”
Professor Rob Campbell, Capitol Technology University, USA
“The articles in the JBBA explain how blockchain has the potential to help solve economic, social, cultural and humanitarian issues. If you want to be prepared for the digital age, you need to read the JBBA. Its articles allowed me to identify problems, find solutions and come up with opportunities regarding blockchain and smart contracts.”
Professor Dr. Eric Vermeulen, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
“The JBBA is the world’s leading academic journal for blockchain research. It publishes a wide range of blockchain topics in a rapidly expanding and important field. Publishing research in The JBBA was quick and hassle-free. The journal provides a remarkable platform to reach the burgeoning group of academics, policymakers and businesses working in blockchain."
Dr. Darcy Allen PhD, RMIT University, Australia
"Within an impressively short time since its launch, the JBBA has developed a strong reputation for publishing interesting research and commentary on blockchain technology. As a reader, I find the articles uniformly engaging and the presentation of the journal impeccable. As an author, I have found the review process to be consistently constructive.”
Prateek Goorha PhD, Blockchain Researcher and Economist, Australia
“This is a very professionally presented journal.”
Peter Robinson, Blockchain Researcher, ConsenSys
“We live in times where the pace of change is accelerating. Blockchain is an emerging technology. The JBBA’s swift review process is key for publishing peer-reviewed academic papers, that are relevant at the point they appear in the journal and beyond.”
Professor Daniel Liebau, Visiting Professor in Blockchain, IE Business School, Spain
“Very professional and efficient handling of the process, including a well-designed hard copy of the journal. Highly recommend its content to the new scientific field blockchain is creating as a combination of CS, Math and Law. Great work!”
Simon Schwerin MSc, BigChain DB and Xain Foundation, Germany
“The JBBA submission process was efficient and trouble free. It was a pleasure to participate in the first edition of the journal.”
Dr. Delton B. Chen PhD, Global4C, USA
“JBBA has quickly become the leading peer-reviewed journal about the fastest growing area of research today. The journal will continue to play a central role in advancing blockchain and distributed ledger technologies”.
John Bond, Senior Publishing Consultant, Riverwinds Consulting, USA
“I had the honour of being an author in the JBBA. It is one of the best efforts promoting serious blockchain research, worldwide. If you are a researcher, you should definitely consider submitting your blockchain research to the JBBA.”
Dr. Stylianos Kampakis PhD, University College London, Centre for Blockchain Technologies, UK
“I would like to think of the JBBA as an engine of knowledge and innovation, supporting blockchain industry, innovation and stimulate debate.”
Dr. Marcella Atzori PhD, EU Parliament and EU Commission Blockchain Expert, Italy
“The overarching mission of the JBBA is to advance the common monologue within the Blockchain technology community. JBBA is a leading practitioners journal for blockchain technology experts.”
Professor Dr. Kevin Curran PhD, Ulster University, Northern Ireland
JBBA Editorial Office:
Editorial Office
The JBBA
The British Blockchain Association
Kemp House 152 - 160 City Road
London, United Kingdom
EC1V 2NX
https://www.britishblockchainassociation.org/jbba
Email: Editorial@thejbba.com
Editor in Chief:
Dr. Naseem Naqvi FBBA FRCP MAcadMedEd FHEA
Digital object identifiers (doi) and Cross Ref:
The JBBA is a member of Cross Ref (https://www.crossref.org/).
Professional Memberships & Partnerships
Indexed in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
On Publons supporting Authors, Reviewers and Editors
We produce infographics of your research
We are a publisher member of CrossRef
We have a JBBA YouTube Channel