Submit a Manuscript to the Journal
Journal of Cyber Policy

For a Special Issue on
Connecting the dots between the Domain Name System and today’s cyber reality

The Journal of Cyber Policy is launching a special issue on the connection between the Domain Name System (DNS) and today’s cyber reality. This issue of the Journal will explore how these globally-distributed resources impact issues such as cybersecurity, privacy, disinformation, consumer protection and the role of multiple stakeholders in governing the Internet.

Everything that happens online relies on the DNS and IP addressing, yet their relevance and connections to today’s cyber policy issues are not always recognised by academic and policy audiences. While there are active multistakeholder communities involved in open internet governance and technical standards processes, the linkages between those processes and contemporary policy debates are sometimes difficult to understand.

The purpose of this special issue is to shed light on the role that the DNS plays in important cyber policy and Internet governance conversations and to generate greater awareness why it matters to build a robust, secure and resilient DNS. In addition, the issue expects to explore challenges around the availability of data relating to the DNS ecosystem to enable proper study and oversight of the processes governing unique identifiers as well as the associated policy challenges.

To this end, the editorial team of Journal of Cyber Policy enthusiastically calls for evidence-based policy papers which explore one or more of the following themes. This list is indicative and not exhaustive, and the decision on the final topics to be included in the special issue will be made by the editorial team on a case-by-case basis.

1. DNS abuse and malicious activity. Strategies to tackle DNS abuse and develop effective policies and mechanisms to handle malicious activity. Exploration of challenges and proposals for the future.
2. Internet Consolidation. Understanding how consolidation on the Internet is playing out at the level of the DNS and ways forward.
3. Standardization work. Analyzing ongoing standardization work on the DNS, particularly on proposals that may seek to transform the Internet’s building blocks or threaten to drive fragmentation.
4. Internet governance and evolving multistakeholderism. Analysis of the future of the Internet governance landscape, with focus on Internet resources and the DNS. Challenges around participation and what is needed to strengthen the multistakeholder system.
5. Internet Security. Studies on most pressing internet security challenges that undermine trust on the internet such as phishing and ransomware attacks, with an eye to understand the role of the DNS in these phenomena. Ways forward for mitigating DNS related security threats.
6. Access to data and evidence-based decision making. Documenting challenges to access to data on the DNS for academic and community oversight and evidence-based policy-making.
7. The DNS and Content. The role of the DNS on content-related policy challenges: how the DNS is leveraged to support disinformation campaigns, distribution of child sexual abuse materials, unlicensed pharmaceuticals or other harmful content, and the human impact of such breaches.
8. Emerging Technology and DNS. The impact of blockchain and emerging tech on the DNS
9. Regulation and the DNS. Regulation and the impact of digital sovereignty in the functioning and governance of the DNS.
10. Gender and Global South Perspectives. Gender and or global south perspectives on the role of the DNS in cyber policy challenges.

In order to amplify a diversity of voices, experiences and perspectives, the Journal’s editorial team is committed to a diversity in the authorship of papers. This special issue invites work from technical, academic and policy backgrounds, and strongly encourages authors from a wide range of demographics, communities, and countries.

This open access special issue is made possible thanks to the generous support of the DNS Research Federation.

Authors are invited to submit relevant articles for consideration by the editorial team. The Journal will accept the successful articles on a rolling basis which will then be published online. Please note that this call is for the period 2022-2023, for which there are three deadlines for submission:

• Date 1: 15/11/2022
• Date 2: 15/03/2023
• Date 3: 15/06/ 2023

Interested authors are asked to submit as a first step their abstract and paper outline (400- 600 words), sketching out the key ideas in their proposed paper. The editorial team will then consider the proposals and make a decision with regards to the commissioning of the full paper within three weeks of the submission of the abstract. Completed manuscripts should be between 4,000 and 8,000 words (not including notes and references).

Completed manuscripts or outlines/abstracts should be submitted via Routledge, Taylor & Francis’ ScholarOne system.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article