Researchers set ethics guidance for studies of arXiv sources
Original title: Public, Identifiable, and Effectively Immutable: Ethical Lessons from Research on arXiv
They warn public papers can still contain identifiable data, leaked secrets and other sensitive details.
A cs.CR paper examines ethics after studies, including the authors' own, analysed arXiv source files that arXiv distributes publicly, often to authors' surprise. The authors say intentionally public, real-name data can still raise concerns when reused for empirical analysis, including exposure of personally identifiable information and leaked secrets. They discuss four higher-level dilemmas and four lessons: treat public availability as the start of ethical reasoning, limit amplification of exposed information, calibrate disclosure to harm, confidence and actionability, and account for effective immutability. The same issues, they argue, apply to other public live resources such as Zenodo and the Wayback Machine.
- Guidance is drawn from talks with researchers, affected authors and readers.
- Disclosure should match harm, confidence and actionability.
- Zenodo and the Wayback Machine are named as similar sources.
- Organizations
- arXiv
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgEthical decision-making is central to safe cybersecurity research. Recent studies, one of which is our own, analyzing the source files of arXiv papers bring this challenge to light - arXiv publicly distributes the source files, to the surprise of many authors. Unique aspects reveal ethical challenges and dilemmas that extend beyond established ethical frameworks, institutional processes, and community best practices.
By Jan Pennekamp · arxiv.org
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