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

数学家职业道德标准是一个相对较新的问题，也是当前一个非常关键的问题。在当今的技术社会中，大数据和算法的使用已被证明会使不平等永久化。算法的设计和大数据的使用往往涉及数学家的工作。许多数学专业协会的职业道德规范倾向于关注学术问题，而不是明确地解决这些新问题和背景。此外，在数学领域中有一种感觉，即数学是抽象的，因此不受伦理考虑的影响。这项为期一年的伦理与责任研究孵化基金旨在收集数学家认为与数学相关的道德准则以及当前专业规范和指导方针中缺少的道德要素的信息。该项目使用了数学相关领域和专业协会（如计算机协会（ACM）和美国统计协会（ASA））的道德规范。这些协会最近更新了它们的准则，以更好地反映大数据和算法设计等领域的当代道德问题。通过调查和焦点小组方法，该项目询问了美国数学协会（MAA）和美国数学协会（AMS）这两个主要学术数学专业协会的现行代码中，数学家认为哪些元素与他们的工作最相关。调查和焦点小组工作还将评估数学家认为与数学相关的专业协会的道德准则与他们的工作相关的程度，以及可能需要哪些特定于数学领域的额外准则。本研究的工作为更广泛的影响奠定了基础，因为这一基础性工作将指导数学领域内的讨论，数学专业组织的道德准则修订，以及大学和行业背景下数学家更强的道德行为。这笔拨款之后，将有一项为期三年的道德和负责任研究计划，将孵化项目的数据收集和白皮书工作扩展到为数学家及其专业协会编制知情的道德实践指南和教育材料。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.