What International Association for Cryptologic Research does

The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) is a non-profit scientific organization founded in 1981 and headquartered in Bellevue, United States, whose stated purpose is to further research in cryptology and related fields. It operates as an international membership association serving cryptography and security researchers in academia and industry, along with graduate students and early-career researchers. Its core product portfolio comprises four peer-reviewed journals (Journal of Cryptology, Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology [ToSC], Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems [TCHES], and the newer Communications in Cryptology [CiC]), a rapid-access preprint repository (Cryptology ePrint Archive), a comprehensive publication database (CryptoDB), and an Artifact Archive supporting reproducible research. The organization also runs the premier annual conference series in the field — Crypto, Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, Crypto CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC, and Real World Crypto — and operates Cryptology Schools for graduate students.

Underlying technology consists of digital infrastructure for scholarly dissemination: CryptoDB tracks 13,148 publications by 11,199 authors across 40+ years, with 200 paper awards and 8,895 program committee memberships by 1,530 people, while the Artifact Archive supports reproducibility through collaborative review between authors and artifact review committees. IACR has a partnership with Springer that publishes proceedings and provides IACR members free access to the Journal of Cryptology and recent proceedings, with open-access release after four years.

Revenue is generated through membership fees (subscription/recurring) and conference proceedings licensing with Springer; pricing is not publicly disclosed. IACR reaches its researcher community through iacr.org, the ePrint Archive, eight major annual conferences, peer-reviewed journals, email newsletters, and multi-platform social media (Twitter/X, YouTube, Facebook, and Weibo). Leadership includes President Christian Cachin and Vice President Nigel Smart, with the Cryptology ePrint Archive overseen by co-editors including Joppe W. Bos, Sofía Celi, and Matthias J. Kannwischer.

Name

International Association for Cryptologic Research

Legal name

International Association for Cryptologic Research

Website

https://iacr.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1981

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) is a non-profit scientific membership organization founded in 1981 that advances cryptology research through peer-reviewed journals (Journal of Cryptology, ToSC, TCHES, CiC), the Cryptology ePrint Archive, Artifact Archive, and premier conferences (Crypto, Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC, RWC) serving global academic and industry researchers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bellevue

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: IACR is a non-profit scientific organization that operates membership-based. Members receive free access to the Journal of Cryptology and IACR proceedings volumes for CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, ASIACRYPT, FSE, CHES, PKC, and TCC through partnership with Springer.
2. Conference Proceedings and Publications: IACR and Springer partnership provides members free access to proceedings. Publisher versions of articles are available to paid subscribers and IACR members within the first four years, then made publicly available under open-access agreement.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

IACR is a non-profit scientific membership association that organizes and operates the field's leading peer-reviewed cryptography journals (Journal of Cryptology, ToSC, TCHES, CiC) and annual conferences (Crypto, Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC, RWC). It also maintains the Cryptology ePrint Archive, CryptoDB publication database, the IACR Artifact Archive for reproducible research, and the Museum of Historic Papers, providing integrated infrastructure for cryptography research, peer review, and scholarly communication worldwide.

Product overview

The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) operates a comprehensive portfolio of scholarly products and services for the cryptography research community. The core offerings include four peer-reviewed journals (Journal of Cryptology, Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, and Communications in Cryptology), a preprint repository (Cryptology ePrint Archive), a publication database (CryptoDB), an artifact archive for reproducible research, and major annual conference series (Crypto, Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, CHES, FSE, PKC, TCC, RWC). Additionally, IACR maintains the Museum of Historic Papers in Cryptology for archiving significant historical documents in the field. Together, these products form an integrated ecosystem supporting cryptography research, publication, peer review, artifact validation, and scholarly communication.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journal of Cryptology

Quantifiable outcome

• CryptoDB tracks 13,148 publications by 11,199 authors across 40+ years of IACR venues
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• SpringercoreTechnology or IntegrationIACR and Springer partnership provides free access for IACR members to the Journal of Cryptology and IACR proceedings volumes for CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, ASIACRYPT, FSE, CHES, PKC, and TCC. Springer publishes IACR conference proceedings with publisher versions available to subscribers and members, with open access after four years.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Springer Nature: Springer is IACR's primary publishing partner and publishes IACR conference proceedings and the Journal of Cryptology. As a large incumbent publisher, Springer is comparable in scale and relevance because it both supports IACR's operations and competes for cryptography publishing through its broader portfolio.
• RSA Conference: RSAC is the largest commercial cryptography and security conference and awards programs (e.g., the RSAC Excellence in Mathematics Award). It is comparable to IACR as an institution that legitimizes excellence in cryptography, although its audience is industry practitioners rather than academic researchers.
• Elsevier: Elsevier publishes competing cryptography-related journals and proceedings (e.g., Theoretical Computer Science, Information Processing & Management). It is comparable as a broad incumbent publisher whose journals compete with IACR venues for high-quality cryptography submissions.

Emerging players

• arXiv (Cornell University): arXiv's cs.CR category is the principal alternative preprint repository for cryptography, used by many cryptology researchers. It is comparable to IACR's Cryptology ePrint Archive as a discovery and rapid-dissemination channel for the field.

Direct peers

• IEEE Computer Society: IEEE Computer Society publishes IEEE S&P (Oakland), IEEE TDSC, and runs major security conferences. It is a direct peer as a non-profit scholarly society that competes with IACR venues for top cryptography and security submissions.
• International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR): IAPR is an international non-profit scientific association that organizes conferences (ICPR, ICDAR) and journals in pattern recognition. It is structurally analogous to IACR as a discipline-specific international scholarly membership organization.
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): ACM is the largest international professional society for computer science, operating flagship conferences (CCS, SIGCOMM, STOC) and journals across computing. Like IACR, it is a non-profit scholarly membership organization that defines publication standards and serves as the institutional anchor for its subfield.
• International Mathematical Union (IMU): IMU is an international non-profit scientific organization that represents mathematicians globally and supports the International Congress of Mathematicians. It is structurally analogous to IACR as a discipline-defining international scholarly association with a similar volunteer governance model.
• USENIX Association: USENIX organizes leading systems and security conferences (USENIX Security, NSDI, OSDI, ATC) under a non-profit membership model. It is the closest direct peer to IACR among security-focused scholarly associations, with comparable governance, volunteer-driven program committees, and open proceedings.

Others

• World Scientific Publishing: World Scientific is an academic publisher with cryptography and security titles. It is comparable as an adjacent publishing ecosystem participant that both publishes competing journals and could serve as an alternative partner venue for cryptology research output.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/IACR_News
• YouTubeyoutube.com/TheIACR
• Facebookfacebook.com/theiacr
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/international-association-for-cryptologic-research

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about International Association for Cryptologic Research