An overview of the Systems Circus

• This page highlights the system circus, including the system security circus.
• The focus of these statistics is on authors and top tier publications.
• All code is available on the HexHive GitHub.
• Do you have ideas, comments, or improvements? Reach out to Mathias Payer.
• Data was processed on 2026-01-05.

Key motivation for this page is to provide an overview of the systems community, its publications, its authors, and its cliques.

The data is sourced from DBLP (for publication data) and CSRankings (for affiliation data). The scripts process the data and create the necessary files for the web page, allowing a fast turnaround whenever new data is added to DBLP.

Area statistics

• Per-area statistics for the major systems conferences.
• We single out total papers, maximum and average papers of an author (max/a and avg/a), average for the top 50 authors (a50), and active authors (a)
• The total number of publications increases steadily for most areas, with security and mobile having the largest increases.
• The maximum number of publications of a single author in a year is slowly increasing, somewhat in line with the increase of the total number of authors per paper.
• As a top author, the number of papers across all areas of systems have increased from around 4-5 to 7-8 papers per year.
• The total number of active authors in a year is steadily increasing, with security and design taking the lead.

Area	Total	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	<5
Systems: Architecture	7269	413	448	407	321	319	303	270	256	226	228	222	206	194	163	159	157	159	142	110	137	2327
	max/a	10	10	11	12	14	10	10	11	7	8	10	6	10	5	6	5	10	6	5	6
	avg/a	1.25	1.3	1.27	1.27	1.29	1.28	1.28	1.31	1.22	1.28	1.32	1.25	1.23	1.24	1.25	1.24	1.3	1.29	1.21	1.3
	avg/a50	4.8	5.32	4.6	4.42	4.4	4.14	4.0	4.02	3.5	3.82	3.84	3.12	3.16	2.68	2.78	2.8	2.92	2.82	2.4	2.78
	#a	2243	2187	1993	1547	1456	1345	1118	974	966	859	812	694	705	551	538	523	480	455	364	441
Systems: Networks	2581	157	174	167	133	114	118	81	80	82	83	82	82	76	61	59	62	59	65	63	66	664
	max/a	12	7	6	8	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	4	4	7	4	4	4	5	5	5
	avg/a	1.27	1.21	1.2	1.18	1.16	1.16	1.12	1.13	1.13	1.23	1.2	1.15	1.18	1.19	1.15	1.16	1.16	1.21	1.17	1.23
	avg/a50	4.0	3.36	3.14	2.6	2.42	2.56	2.0	2.14	2.1	2.66	2.5	2.16	2.24	2.02	1.74	1.84	1.78	1.96	1.78	1.94
	#a	1125	1114	999	738	599	609	421	442	411	365	401	378	343	266	241	256	250	230	233	207
Systems: Security	9712	1221	1146	947	705	643	473	436	369	364	325	300	280	251	218	157	142	130	127	122	108	1155
	max/a	19	29	15	13	10	10	11	9	11	12	9	10	9	7	7	7	6	7	7	5
	avg/a	1.42	1.44	1.39	1.36	1.34	1.28	1.29	1.3	1.29	1.33	1.35	1.29	1.28	1.29	1.29	1.22	1.21	1.21	1.18	1.18
	avg/a50	8.44	9.24	7.6	6.28	5.34	4.76	4.38	4.56	4.34	4.14	4.32	3.84	3.34	3.38	3.04	2.66	2.48	2.44	2.3	2.12
	#a	4547	4250	3408	2517	2364	1783	1679	1361	1367	1124	1003	927	777	701	474	456	384	357	354	303
Systems: Databases	8609	299	370	302	470	480	429	281	255	268	276	311	287	261	197	233	246	213	229	198	155	2671
	max/a	10	14	11	14	11	12	8	6	6	6	8	10	5	5	7	8	8	6	7	5
	avg/a	1.18	1.3	1.21	1.3	1.31	1.3	1.21	1.23	1.22	1.2	1.26	1.3	1.2	1.19	1.26	1.27	1.27	1.23	1.26	1.23
	avg/a50	3.84	5.54	4.14	5.3	5.6	5.26	4.04	3.74	3.58	3.44	4.04	4.12	3.06	2.56	3.36	3.4	3.18	2.86	3.0	2.68
	#a	1527	1602	1414	1810	1889	1666	1150	1038	953	1025	1145	946	928	654	722	747	617	688	569	440
Systems: Design	11162	415	703	547	425	411	451	422	210	378	170	319	295	271	271	262	221	217	237	232	256	4212
	max/a	9	27	18	9	11	9	11	5	11	8	9	10	11	7	8	9	6	6	8	6
	avg/a	1.28	1.34	1.3	1.28	1.29	1.28	1.28	1.14	1.27	1.19	1.31	1.27	1.3	1.25	1.21	1.26	1.23	1.18	1.24	1.27
	avg/a50	4.8	7.52	5.48	4.38	4.84	4.38	4.34	2.5	4.02	2.82	4.52	3.72	3.92	3.4	3.08	2.92	2.8	2.72	3.0	3.22
	#a	1906	2703	2100	1601	1545	1643	1503	766	1235	641	994	969	840	856	782	588	588	684	640	668
Embedded Systems	2195	32	61	61	60	72	58	70	66	61	83	86	88	63	58	70	66	77	73	72	76	774
	max/a	4	6	8	6	6	3	5	4	4	4	4	5	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3
	avg/a	1.15	1.22	1.34	1.23	1.25	1.19	1.15	1.23	1.15	1.2	1.15	1.19	1.09	1.07	1.08	1.13	1.17	1.08	1.16	1.08
	avg/a50	1.4	2.04	2.48	1.96	2.32	1.7	1.72	1.9	1.64	2.0	1.88	2.02	1.4	1.3	1.38	1.5	1.76	1.34	1.68	1.34
	#a	132	240	218	209	260	189	239	195	212	252	287	268	212	211	224	194	219	226	215	224
Systems: HPC	6288	275	210	161	205	162	219	156	212	111	150	145	366	167	176	183	216	151	139	129	406	2194
	max/a	11	7	9	11	7	5	10	4	4	7	7	8	6	7	4	5	4	5	4	5
	avg/a	1.21	1.13	1.19	1.14	1.13	1.11	1.16	1.13	1.11	1.13	1.16	1.15	1.16	1.17	1.13	1.09	1.14	1.12	1.08	1.18
	avg/a50	4.14	3.04	3.18	2.7	2.68	2.56	2.66	2.4	2.14	2.54	2.5	3.22	2.42	2.72	2.36	2.22	2.22	2.22	1.72	2.92
	#a	1494	1176	929	936	920	952	820	867	516	726	605	1339	665	738	674	787	551	510	426	1069
Mobile Systems	2658	99	285	167	193	143	139	122	102	99	83	94	82	84	87	78	83	77	78	73	78	348
	max/a	4	11	6	8	5	9	5	5	6	4	6	6	3	4	5	3	4	3	3	4
	avg/a	1.08	1.26	1.23	1.23	1.16	1.25	1.18	1.18	1.14	1.09	1.18	1.19	1.13	1.16	1.1	1.16	1.08	1.08	1.1	1.14
	avg/a50	1.84	4.28	3.14	3.3	2.6	3.1	2.42	2.38	2.16	1.66	2.34	2.22	1.86	2.12	1.64	2.04	1.52	1.48	1.52	1.78
	#a	511	1321	749	823	614	636	516	432	424	349	374	329	341	356	317	327	326	287	266	275
Systems: Measurements	1400	42	100	103	95	108	101	96	82	85	46	44	42	42	45	42	47	69	31	39	34	71
	max/a	3	5	5	5	4	5	3	4	4	5	5	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	2	2
	avg/a	1.01	1.14	1.14	1.17	1.14	1.17	1.09	1.12	1.12	1.17	1.16	1.13	1.12	1.06	1.08	1.12	1.09	1.1	1.06	1.13
	avg/a50	1.06	2.22	2.14	2.28	2.24	2.28	1.64	1.86	1.8	1.56	1.58	1.48	1.44	1.2	1.26	1.4	1.38	1.2	1.16	1.32
	#a	202	447	413	382	449	390	373	352	323	168	182	185	177	176	165	165	220	99	135	120
Systems: OS	4160	340	266	245	189	215	203	187	189	171	170	137	137	115	118	107	104	102	105	127	114	746
	max/a	11	10	11	7	8	5	6	6	4	4	3	5	7	3	4	4	5	5	4	3
	avg/a	1.23	1.17	1.23	1.15	1.18	1.13	1.15	1.15	1.14	1.16	1.12	1.12	1.16	1.12	1.1	1.11	1.11	1.13	1.11	1.09
	avg/a50	4.44	3.46	4.0	2.78	3.22	2.78	2.62	2.82	2.38	2.4	2.26	2.26	2.44	2.12	1.86	1.84	1.86	1.98	1.9	1.7
	#a	1956	1521	1447	935	1110	1045	873	965	746	752	598	646	458	488	431	393	409	378	416	375
Systems: Programming Languages	6354	147	276	217	260	254	291	265	221	221	196	198	184	179	182	203	173	141	138	147	124	2220
	max/a	3	10	5	10	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	4	5	5	4	4	3	4	4
	avg/a	1.09	1.2	1.16	1.23	1.19	1.22	1.19	1.21	1.17	1.2	1.17	1.17	1.17	1.15	1.23	1.13	1.12	1.11	1.14	1.14
	avg/a50	1.92	3.06	2.6	3.1	2.9	3.04	2.86	2.68	2.52	2.46	2.44	2.42	2.4	2.32	2.62	2.16	1.94	1.8	2.08	1.96
	#a	516	890	759	813	869	934	862	696	658	577	553	575	501	537	550	489	408	352	379	333
Systems: Software Engineering	5162	245	234	375	330	258	254	204	180	158	183	206	160	167	175	116	110	85	111	120	99	1298
	max/a	8	12	10	14	8	7	8	4	5	8	5	6	5	5	5	3	3	5	4	5
	avg/a	1.19	1.25	1.36	1.28	1.25	1.28	1.21	1.18	1.13	1.21	1.2	1.22	1.17	1.19	1.16	1.07	1.19	1.11	1.11	1.12
	avg/a50	3.18	3.72	5.46	4.14	3.88	3.78	2.98	2.46	2.34	2.74	2.74	2.66	2.42	2.56	2.14	1.52	1.9	1.7	1.74	1.66
	#a	1118	981	1395	1330	991	966	798	668	564	651	691	477	504	508	364	368	235	331	338	277
All Areas	67550	3685	4273	3699	3386	3179	3039	2590	2222	2224	1993	2144	2209	1870	1751	1669	1627	1480	1475	1432	1653	18680
	max/a	22	30	23	17	17	15	14	20	14	12	12	12	11	10	11	9	11	9	9	8
	avg/a	1.44	1.45	1.43	1.4	1.39	1.37	1.34	1.33	1.31	1.34	1.36	1.32	1.3	1.3	1.31	1.27	1.29	1.27	1.26	1.28
	avg/a50	12.08	13.6	11.8	10.06	9.36	8.62	8.04	7.06	6.96	6.94	7.16	6.62	6.44	5.72	5.7	5.34	4.96	5.58	5.06	4.96
	#a	15289	16441	14151	12329	11807	11003	9416	7964	7672	6805	6965	7116	5975	5541	4996	4876	4286	4241	4002	4394

Individual per-author statistics for different areas

• Systems: Architecture
• Systems: Networks
• Systems: Security
• Systems: Databases
• Systems: Design
• Embedded Systems
• Systems: HPC
• Mobile Systems
• Systems: Measurements
• Systems: OS
• Systems: Programming Languages
• Systems: Software Engineering
• All Areas

Author/collaboration cliques for different areas

• List of author cliques (based on co-authorship).