Aims

Journal of Trustworthy and Responsible Computing (JTRC) is an international, peer-reviewed open-access journal that publishes research on how computational systems can be designed, implemented, evaluated, and governed so as to be reliable, transparent, secure, and accountable in practice.

The journal is concerned less with incremental improvements in computational performance than with the conditions under which computing systems can be trusted and responsibly deployed: how reliability, robustness, safety, fairness, and explainability are defined and operationalised; how risks, errors, and unintended consequences are identified and managed; and how technical design choices shape the behaviour and impact of digital systems over time. JTRC welcomes work that examines how these concerns are addressed within concrete computational architectures, algorithms, software systems, and data-driven applications.

JTRC provides a home for interdisciplinary scholarship spanning computer science, software and systems engineering, data science, cybersecurity, human–computer interaction, and socio-technical studies, where the analytical or technical contribution remains central. Submissions may address, among other issues, how trust and responsibility are built into computational systems, how they are assessed and audited, and how technical and organisational mechanisms interact in shaping system behaviour.

JTRC publishes rigorous conceptual, methodological, computational, and empirical contributions that help researchers and practitioners understand not only what computing systems can do, but how they can be made dependable, interpretable, and socially acceptable in complex real-world settings.

JTRC is published quarterly by Acadlore and follows a structured peer-review process and standard editorial procedures to support consistency and transparency in its publication practices.

Key features of JTRC include:

• The journal centres on the technical and methodological foundations of trustworthy and responsible computing, rather than on normative discussion detached from system design and implementation;

• It gives particular attention to how reliability, security, fairness, transparency, and accountability are realised, measured, and evaluated within concrete computational systems;

• The journal values work that connects algorithmic, architectural, and software-level choices with system behaviour, risk, and impact, supported by clear analytical reasoning and empirical or computational evidence;

• Contributions on ethical, legal, or societal implications are considered where these are grounded in technical analysis, system modelling, or systematic empirical study, rather than presented as general commentary;

• The journal encourages comparative and cross-domain studies that examine how different computational settings address issues of trust and responsibility in distinct ways;

• The editorial and review process emphasises clarity of argument, transparency of method, and the robustness of conclusions, to ensure a fair, consistent, and substantively grounded evaluation of submissions.

Scope

JTRC welcomes original research articles, theoretical contributions, systematic reviews, and high-quality empirical or computational studies in areas including, but not limited to, the following:

Foundations of Trustworthy Computing

• Formal definitions and operational metrics of trustworthiness, responsibility, and dependability in computing systems

• Correctness, reliability, robustness, safety, and availability of digital systems and services

• Verification, validation, and testing methods for critical and safety-sensitive computing systems

• Uncertainty, error propagation, and risk modelling in computational processes

• Fault tolerance, redundancy, and recovery mechanisms in digital infrastructures

• System-level trust assessment and assurance frameworks

Algorithms, Models, and Learning Systems

• Explainable, interpretable, and transparent algorithmic models and decision processes

• Robust and uncertainty-aware machine learning methods under distribution shift and data noise

• Detection, measurement, and mitigation of algorithmic bias and unfair outcomes

• Analysis of model generalisation, brittleness, and failure modes

• Adversarial robustness, secure learning, and defence against malicious manipulation

• Responsible design, deployment, and lifecycle management of learning systems

Software and Systems Engineering

• Secure, reliable, and maintainable software design and development practices

• Architectures for resilience, fault tolerance, and high availability in large-scale systems

• Runtime monitoring, logging, auditing, and observability mechanisms

• Testing, debugging, updating, and patching of mission-critical software systems

• Reliability and trust management in distributed, cloud, and platform-based infrastructures

• Software evolution and technical debt management in long-lived systems

Security, Privacy, and Data Governance

• Privacy-preserving computation, anonymisation, and secure data processing techniques

• Threat modelling, intrusion detection, and defence strategies for computing systems

• Data provenance, lineage, traceability, and accountability mechanisms

• Secure data sharing, access control, and identity management

• Compliance-aware system design with respect to data protection and security regulations

• Risk assessment and mitigation for data-intensive and information systems

Human–System Interaction and Oversight

• Human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop system architectures and control strategies

• User understanding, calibration of trust, and appropriate reliance on automated systems

• Interface and interaction design for transparency, interpretability, and controllability

• Operational oversight, incident management, and escalation procedures

• Human factors and organisational practices in safety-critical and automated environments

Assessment, Audit, and Governance of Computing Systems

• Technical auditing, inspection, and independent assessment of algorithms and systems

• Algorithmic impact assessment and risk evaluation methods

• Benchmarks, standards, certification, and conformity assessment schemes

• Accountability, responsibility, and traceability mechanisms in system operation

• Regulatory compliance and governance frameworks for computational technologies

Applications and Domain Studies

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in healthcare, medical devices, and clinical decision support

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in finance, insurance, and algorithmic trading

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in transportation, mobility, and autonomous systems

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in public administration and digital government

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in industrial automation and manufacturing systems

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in large-scale digital platforms and online services

• Trustworthy and responsible computing in cross-border, global, and multi-jurisdictional systems