AI & SOCIETY

AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication, is an International Journal publishing refereed scholarly articles, position papers, debates, short communications, systematic reviews and reviews of books and other publications. Established in 1986, the Journal focuses on societal issues including the design, use, management, and policy of information, communications and new media technologies, with a particular emphasis on cultural, social, cognitive, economic, ethical, and philosophical implications, addressing the need for a paradigm shift in the way digital systems are conceived, used, applied, and regulated. 

AI & Society positions the significance of values for critical thinking, a diversity of cultural perspectives and practices to address the issues of our times to shape AI mediated futures for the common good. We welcome reflective and contextual contributions and participation from researchers and practitioners in a variety of fields including humanities, social sciences, arts and sciences, design, and digital media arts.  This includes broader societal and cultural impacts and contexts. The journal encourages contributions exploring the potential and fundamental values beyond algorithmic optimization, efficiency, or profitability. Co-authored articles from diverse disciplines are encouraged.

AI & Societyhas a broad scope and is strongly interdisciplinary. It examines the roles of algorithms as scientific instruments and cultural determinants, critically attending to the outstanding need to shift from algorithmic governance shaping society, to society shaping algorithms and their influence. Most fundamentally, AI & Society considers how the shift from personalization to personification of algorithmic technologies is, has been and should be, affecting our ability to navigate indeterminacy - that which cannot be modelled in advance - in order that we can deal with that which is not represented, with the tacit, or the excluded.

AI & Society promotes an understanding of the potential, transformative impacts and critical consequences of technological mediation for human and natural ecologies and societies. Technological innovations, including new sciences such as biotech, nanotech and neuroscience, offer great potential, but also pose existential risks. Rooted in the human-centred tradition of science and technology, AI & Society acts as a catalyst, promoter and facilitator of engagement with a diversity of voices on visionary, over-the-horizon issues involving the arts, philosophy, science and technology. 

In keeping with the ethos of the journal, submissions should provide a substantial and explicit argument on the societal dimension of research, particularly the benefits, impacts and implications for human beings and the natural and institutional ecosystems on which we depend. This may include factors such as trust, empathy, ethics, aesthetics, bias and prejudice, privacy, reliability, responsibility, and competence of AI systems. Such arguments should be validated by critical comment on current research in associated area, clearly exposing the significance of submitted works for the journal's contemporary, internal and diverse readership. 

The journal is in four parts: a) Research; b) Open Forum; c) Curmudgeon Corner; d) Reviews and Book Reviews.

Research articles are strictly focused, academically coherent, theoretically grounded, methodologically sound and empirically strong. In keeping with the ethos of the journal, submissions should provide a substantial and explicit argument on the purpose of the article, its relevance to current and future design and applications of AI, particularly on the societal dimension of research, potential benefits, impacts and implications for society. Articles in this category are expected to make a significant contribution to knowledge. 

Open Forum articles advance on established and ongoing research, focusing on social impacts of emerging technologies, applications, and practices. Controversial themes are to be treated with balance, nuance, informed scholarship and insight. Submissions are expected to expose key concepts, ideas, and theories through deep and detailed engagement with foundational works and comparable contemporary research programs and publications. The articles should develop strong central messages clearly communicating their significance as contributions to current inquiries and attendant discussions. 

Review articles provide analytically rigorous and conceptually grounded examinations of existing scholarship, practices, or debates relevant to the journal’s scope. Suitable formats include structured literature reviews of research, theory driven integrative surveys, critical state of the field analyses, and reflective reviews that advance conceptual or methodological understanding. Review articles may also examine science practices, exhibitions, research forums, policy developments, or books, provided they demonstrate analytical depth and clear relevance to societal, cultural, or application domains. Reviews should engage critically with existing empirical findings, compare approaches across studies, and articulate implications for future research, design, or implementation. Book Reviews are reviewed by the Editorial Board. 

Curmudgeon Corner is a short opinionated letter to the editor on trends in technology, arts, science and society, commenting emphatically on issues of concern to the research community and wider society. The Curmudgeon usually benefits from a clearly staked claim, a distinctive argumentative voice, and a slightly combative or contrarian edge. Curmudgeon article is a straight essay (no abstract, no key words), with no subsections, no more than 3 references and 2 co-authors.  The Curmudgeon Corner letters are reviewed by the Editorial Board.

Submissions in all the above categories should be clear, accessible, and informative for readers from diverse cultural backgrounds and disciplines, who are often reading in English as a second and/or foreign language outside of personal areas of expertise. LLM use for tasks other than grammar and translation, and high similarity submissions (archived/published) are strongly discouraged. Pre-publications should be acknowledged in the declaration section. Normal word length: Research 10k, Open Forum 8k, Curmudgeon 1-1.5k, Reviews 8k, Book Reviews: 1-1.5 K