Defining "Ethical Mathematical Practice" Through Engagement with Discipline-Adjacent Practice Standards and the Mathematical Community.

This project explored what constitutes "ethical practice of mathematics". Thematic analysis of ethical practice standards from mathematics-adjacent disciplines (statistics and computing), were combined with two organizational codes of conduct and community input resulting in over 100 items. These an...

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Published in:Science & Engineering Ethics Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 1 - 32
Main Authors: Tractenberg, Rochelle E., Piercey, Victor I., Buell, Catherine A.
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Jun2024
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1007/s11948-024-00466-4
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        atl: Defining "Ethical Mathematical Practice" Through Engagement with Discipline-Adjacent Practice Standards and the Mathematical Community.
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          Tractenberg, Rochelle E.
          Piercey, Victor I.
          Buell, Catherine A.
        affil:
          Departments of Neurology
          https://ror.org/00cg1ev32 Department of Mathematics, Ferris State University, 1201 S. State Street, Big Rapids, 49307, Michigan, USA
          https://ror.org/031tt0491 Department of Mathematics, Fitchburg State University, 60 Pearl Street, 01420-2697, Fitchburg, MA, USA
      su:
        American Statistical Association
        American Mathematical Society
        Codes of ethics
        Ethics
        Thematic analysis
        Statistical association
        Internet forums
      sug:
        subj:
          American Statistical Association
          American Mathematical Society
          Codes of ethics
          Ethics
          Thematic analysis
          Statistical association
          Internet forums
      keyword:
        Ethical mathematical practice
        Ethical practice standards
        Ethics in mathematics
        Mathematical practice
        Mathematics community
      ab: This project explored what constitutes "ethical practice of mathematics". Thematic analysis of ethical practice standards from mathematics-adjacent disciplines (statistics and computing), were combined with two organizational codes of conduct and community input resulting in over 100 items. These analyses identified 29 of the 52 items in the 2018 American Statistical Association Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice, and 15 of the 24 additional (unique) items from the 2018 Association of Computing Machinery Code of Ethics for inclusion. Three of the 29 items synthesized from the 2019 American Mathematical Society Code of Ethics, and zero of the Mathematical Association of America Code of Ethics, were identified as reflective of "ethical mathematical practice" beyond items already identified from the other two codes. The community contributed six unique items. Item stems were standardized to, "The ethical mathematics practitioner...". Invitations to complete the 30-min online survey were shared nationally (US) via Mathematics organization listservs and other widespread emails and announcements. We received 142 individual responses to the national survey, 75% of whom endorsed 41/52 items, with 90–100% endorsing 20/52 items on the survey. Items from different sources were endorsed at both high and low rates. A final thematic analysis yielded 44 items, grouped into "General" (12 items), "Profession" (10 items) and "Scholarship" (11 items). Moreover, for the practitioner in a leader/mentor/supervisor/instructor role, there are an additional 11 items (4 General/7 Professional). These results suggest that the community perceives a much wider range of behaviors by mathematicians to be subject to ethical practice standards than had been previously included in professional organization codes. The results provide evidence against the argument that mathematics practitioners engaged in "pure" or "theoretical" work have minimal, small, or no ethical obligations.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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