Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A cybersecurity researcher submitting an empirical study on side-channel analysis to ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS) after confirming the journal's peer-review scope and open bibliometric indicators.
- Is an instance
A university tenure committee consulting TOPS publication records alongside OpenAlex citation metrics while following DORA recommendations to evaluate the substantive contributions of candidate papers.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Treating the journal-level citation rate of ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security as a direct measurement of the quality or technical rigor of an individual research paper published within it.
- Not an instance
Confusing ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS) with conference proceedings such as the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS).
Editorial commentary
Quick answer: ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS) is a premier peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). According to verified open bibliometric records from OpenAlex, the journal holds a 2-year mean citedness of 6.33, an h-index of 45, and over 7,600 total citations across 362 published works. In line with responsible evaluation declarations like DORA, journal citation averages reflect publication-wide visibility and must not substitute for the direct appraisal of individual contributions.
Journal Overview and Publication Scope
ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security publishes advanced research addressing foundational and applied problems in computing security, privacy preservation, and trustworthy system design. The venue began publication under its current name in 2016 with Volume 19, having previously been published as ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC, ISSN 1094-9224). The journal carries print ISSN 2471-2566 and electronic ISSN 2471-2574.
The scope encompasses cryptographic algorithms, hardware-rooted security, network defenses, privacy-enhancing data techniques, access control models, and adversarial robustness in machine learning. Authors investigating institutional defenses and organizational compliance, such as frameworks explored in what is cybersecurity, publish formal empirical validations and experimental prototypes within the journal.
Citation Metrics and Bibliometric Indicators
Bibliometric tracking from OpenAlex and Crossref provides verified structural data regarding the publication volume and citation patterns of the journal:
- Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- International Standard Serial Numbers: Print ISSN 2471-2566, Electronic ISSN 2471-2574, ISSN-L 2471-2566
- Total Works: 362 publications recorded in OpenAlex, with 358 registered DOIs indexed in Crossref
- Cumulative Citations: 7,680 citations recorded in OpenAlex
- OpenAlex 2-Year Mean Citedness: 6.33
- Bibliometric Indices: h-index of 45; i10-index of 179
The 2-year mean citedness metric is calculated by dividing the citations received in a given year by the total citable articles and reviews published during the preceding two calendar years. While commercial indexes like Clarivate’s journal impact factor or Elsevier’s citescore compute specialized ratios behind institutional subscription paywalls, open indicators from OpenAlex and Crossref provide reproducible, transparent tracking of the venue’s citation footprint.
Responsible Research Assessment and Evaluation Caution
Major academic bodies and evaluation frameworks caution against using journal-level metrics as proxies for individual paper quality. Both the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto emphasize that citation distributions are highly skewed across all scientific fields. In computing and information security, influential articles may accrue significant recognition while other rigorous specialized papers receive fewer citations.
When institutions conduct hiring, promotion, or grant evaluation, evaluation committees should appraise the methodology, transparency, and artifact availability of individual research works rather than relying on journal impact ratios.
Sources
- OpenAlex API, “ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (Source S4210174050)”, https://api.openalex.org/sources/S4210174050, 2026-11-08.
- Crossref API, “ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (ISSN 2471-2566)”, https://api.crossref.org/journals/2471-2566, 2026-11-08.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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