Infrastructure of Ethics: How Publication Workflows Shape Ethical Expectations in Computational Research
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: As computational research increasingly relies on large-scale, digitally generated data, concerns about research ethics have become more urgent. Yet beyond institutional oversight and informal disciplinary norms, comparatively little attention has been paid to the ethical infrastructures that shape researcher expectations within the publication process itself. This article presents an exploratory review of 191 computational journals and conferences to examine how ethics is communicated and operationalized through three components of publication infrastructure: public-facing author guidelines, manuscript submission workflows, and review procedures. We document the frequency, placement, and form of ethics-related prompts across these systems and analyze how they vary across subfields. Our findings reveal substantial inconsistency in how venues frame ethical responsibilities, with most offering only minimal or procedural disclosures and few integrating ethics meaningfully into review processes. We argue that these infrastructural gaps contribute to fragmented ethical expectations for researchers and limit opportunities for reflective practice. By mapping current practices, this work advances efforts to strengthen responsible computational research by illuminating how publication infrastructures—alongside institutional review boards and professional codes—play a critical role in shaping ethical reflection and accountability in computational research.
DOI: 10.1145/3821572
Authors: Michael Zimmer, Tania Mishra, Riley Abrahamson
Institution: Marquette University
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W7165013120