Measuring and fostering diversity in Affective Computing research

This work presents a longitudinal study of diversity among the Affective Computing research community members. We explore several dimensions of diversity, including gender, geography, institutional types of affiliations and selected combinations of dimensions. We cover the last 10 years of the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing (TAFFC) journal and the International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), the primary sources of publications in Affective Computing. Our findings reveal notable correlations between different types of diversity, such as gender and institutional type, geography and topics, as well as topics and first author’s gender. We also present an analysis of diversity among the members of the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing (AAAC). Finally, we analyse diversity initiatives that have been undertaken in other AI-related research communities to foster diversity, and conclude on a set of initiatives that could be applied to the Affective Computing field to increase diversity in its different facets. The data collected in this work will be publicly available, ensuring strict personal data protection and governance rules.