Collaborative Research: Foundational Community-Based Research for Ethics in Mathematics

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Professional ethics standards for mathematicians is both a relatively novel issue and a critical one at this moment in time. The use of big data and algorithms in today's technological society has been shown to perpetuate inequalities. The design of algorithms and use of big data often involve the work of mathematicians. Professional codes of ethics for many mathematical professional societies tend to focus on academic issues and do not explicitly address these newer issues and contexts. Moreover, there is a sense within the field of mathematics that mathematics is abstract and as such free from ethical considerations. This one-year Ethical and Responsible Research incubation grant aims to gather information on what ethical guidelines mathematicians believe are relevant to mathematics and which elements of ethics are missing from current professional codes and guidelines. The project makes use of ethics codes from mathematics-adjacent fields and professional societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Statistical Association (ASA). These societies have recently updated their codes to better reflect contemporary issues of ethics in areas such as big data and algorithm design. Using survey and focus group methods, the project interrogates which elements from the current codes of the two major academic mathematics professional societies, the Mathematics Association of America (MAA) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) mathematicians see as most relevant to their work. The survey and focus group work will also evaluate the extent to which mathematicians feel that the ethical guidelines from the mathematics-adjacent professional societies are relevant to their work and what additional guidelines might be necessary that are specific to the field of mathematics. The work of this study lays the groundwork for broader impacts as this foundational work will guide discussions within the field of mathematics, revisions to codes of ethics by mathematics professional organizations, and stronger ethical behavior on the part of mathematicians in university and industry contexts. This grant is intended to be followed by a three-year Ethical and Responsible Research proposal to extend the data collection and white paper work of the incubation project into the construction of informed ethical practice guidelines and educational materials for mathematicians and their professional societies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.