Call for papers

Special Journal Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Ethics

Editors of the Special Issue

James Wright, AI ethics and governance researcher and practitioner, engaged in international initiatives on responsible AI and capacity-building, including work aligned with UNESCO-led efforts.

Davor Orlič, Chief Operating Officer of the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) under UNESCO, with extensive experience at the intersection of AI research, innovation, and global policy.

Theodore Lechterman, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at IE University and UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics & Governance, specialising in political philosophy, democratic ethics, and AI governance.

Numtip Smerchuar, Assistant Professor in public administration and public policy, with research interests in governance, development policy, and socio-economic impacts of emerging technologies.

Watcharaphong Yookwan, Computer science researcher specialising in artificial intelligence, computer vision, and image processing, with academic affiliation in Thailand.

Background and Motivation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping social, economic, political, and institutional systems worldwide. While AI offers significant opportunities to advance sustainable development, innovation, and public good, it also raises profound ethical, legal, and governance challenges. These challenges include issues of fairness, accountability, transparency, human rights, power asymmetries, environmental sustainability, and the responsible deployment of AI systems across diverse global contexts. In recognition of these challenges, the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) , under the auspices of UNESCO, organised a Call for Abstracts at the Global Forum on the Ethics of AI (GFEAI) 2025 . Building on the strong response and interdisciplinary engagement at GFEAI 2025, JAISD is now launching a Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Ethics to provide a rigorous, peer-reviewed academic outlet for extended and original research contributions. This Special Issue aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from across disciplines to advance theoretical, empirical, and technical understanding of ethical AI, with particular attention to global, inclusive, and sustainability-oriented perspectives.

SUBMIT YOUR PAPER to: info@ircai.org

Scope of the Special Issue

The Special Issue welcomes original, unpublished research papers that critically examine the ethical dimensions of AI systems, their design, deployment, governance, and societal impacts. Submissions may build on abstracts presented at GFEAI 2025, but this is not a requirement. All submissions must meet JAISD’s standard peer-review criteria. The issue is structured into two complementary tracks, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of AI ethics research.

Track 1: Law, Public Policy, Ethics, and Social Sciences

This track invites contributions from law, public policy, philosophy, ethics, political science, sociology, economics, development studies, and related disciplines.

Indicative topics include (but are not limited to):

Ethical frameworks and normative theories for AI governance.
Human rights and fundamental freedoms in the age of AI.
AI regulation, standards, and international governance mechanisms.
UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: implementation and impact.
Power, inequality, and global justice in AI development and deployment.
AI, labour markets, and economic inclusion.
Environmental and sustainability ethics of AI systems.
Public sector AI, democratic accountability, and institutional trust.
Cultural, regional, and Global South perspectives on AI ethics.
Participatory, inclusive, and community-centred AI governance models.

Track 2: Computer Science, Data Science, and Technical Disciplines

This track invites technical and interdisciplinary papers from computer science, data science, machine learning, AI engineering, and related fields, with a strong emphasis on ethical design, evaluation, and deployment of AI systems. We are particularly seeking original research addressing the following sub-themes:

Fairness, bias detection, and mitigation in AI and machine learning systems.
Explainable, interpretable, and transparent AI methods.
Privacy-preserving machine learning and data governance techniques.
Robustness, safety, and reliability of AI systems in real-world settings.
Human-centred AI and value-aligned system design.
Auditing, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks for ethical AI.
Responsible data collection, annotation, and dataset governance.
AI system lifecycle management and ethical risk assessment.
Energy efficiency, carbon footprint, and environmental impacts of AI.
Technical tools supporting compliance with ethical and regulatory requirements.

Submissions in this track should clearly articulate the ethical relevance and implications of the proposed technical contributions.

SUBMIT YOUR PAPER to: info@ircai.org

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We invite researchers to submit their manuscripts. The call will be open until April 20, 2026.

All manuscripts must be original and not under consideration elsewhere.
Papers should follow the JAISD author guidelines and formatting requirements.
Submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.
Interdisciplinary and practice-oriented contributions are strongly encouraged, provided they meet academic quality standards.

Manuscript development window: Authors are invited to submit manuscripts between 4,000 and 5,000 words until April 20, 2026. Manuscripts will then undergo peer review. Once authors receive their peer reviews, they will have a maximum of 2 weeks to send their final version. The collection will be published in 2026. Submit your paper to: info@ircai.org. Please address your submission to Mrs. Senja Požar and include the issue’s title.

KEY DATES

Manuscript deadline: April 20, 2026 
Publication date: Autumn 2026

CONTACT

For more information, contact the editorial team at info@ircai.org.

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