Ethics in Computational Communication Science: Between values and perspectives

Abstract

In Computational Communication Science (CCS) researchers grapple with intricate ethical challenges arising from the collection and analysis of complex data sets often including sensitive or copyrighted data. Rooted in two opposing lines of philosophical arguments - deontology and consequentialism - we argue that CCS research is particularly difficult to be projected onto this ethical spectrum. Our study aims to empirically assess the nature and prevalence of provided arguments and influencing factors for ethical decision-making in CCS research. Through a manual content analysis of 476 CCS studies, sampled from a corpus of 22,375 collected communication science articles, we shed light on data sharing practices and ethical reflections of CCS researchers. Findings indicate large room for maneuver. The majority of studies (89.50%) chose not to share their data, while 6.93% chose to share their data either full or partially. Only 5.88% of studies explicitly addressed general ethical considerations. Ethical review processes were mentioned by 6.51% of studies, with the majority pointing at ethical procedures such as obtaining informed consent, data anonymization measures, or debriefing. This suggests that researchers in CCS prioritize context-specific ethical procedures in the absence of field-specific standards, emphasizing the importance of flexibility in addressing ethical considerations.