How Transparent is Usable Privacy and Security Research? A Meta-Study on Current Research Transparency Practices

Jan H. Klemmer, Juliane Schmüser, Fabian Fischer, Jacques Suray, Jan-Ulrich Holtgrave, Simon Lenau, Byron M. Lowens, Florian Schaub, Sascha Fahl

34th USENIX Security Symposium · Day 1

This distinguished paper from USENIX Security 2025 presents a groundbreaking **meta-study** examining the state of research transparency within the **Usable Privacy and Security (UPS)** community. Authored by Jan H. Klemmer and a team of researchers from CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Indiana University Indianapolis, and the University of Michigan, the work quantitatively analyzes reporting practices in a field that uniquely blends computer security, privacy, and human-centered research. The study addresses a critical gap, as prior meta-research on transparency was largely absent in the UPS domain, despite growing concerns about reproducibility and validity across scientific disciplines.

AI review

A competent meta-study that confirms what most honest researchers already suspect: we're bad at sharing our work. The 52-criterion framework is useful, the dead-link analysis is damning, but the recommendations read like a committee wrote them. Fills a gap in the literature without setting anything on fire.