List of selected publications
Dr. Jana Sedlakova is an interdisciplinary researcher bringing methods and insights from philosophy and ethics into other disciplines, mainly at the intersection of data science, health research, and sustainability.
She obtained a PhD from the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine of the University of Zurich, focusing on the ethics of conversational AI in mental healthcare. In 2022, she joined a complementary PhD Program “DSI Excellence PhD Program” of the Digital Society Initiative to strengthen her research with the focus on societal and ethical issues of digitalization. She also chairs two scientific communities: Ethics and Health at the DSI. Finally, she was affiliated with the Institute of Implementation Science in Healthcare to work on more empirically oriented research.
Her PhD research was at the intersection of medical ethics, philosophy of technology, ethics of AI and health research. She focused on the ethical and epistemic challenges and requirements regarding human-AI interaction with a particular focus on healthcare conversational agents used in the context of mental health and well-being. She was also involved in projects focusing on the public legitimacy of digital research methods, the challenges and requirements of the use of digital unstructured data in health research and the use of technologies in shared decision-making. In her research, she aims to bridge the normative, theoretical methods with empirical research.
Her research output includes 15 peer-reviewed articles and three book chapters, regular presentations at national and international conferences, and interdisciplinary outreach activities. Her publications span leading journals in biomedical ethics, including American Journal of Bioethics, forthcoming chapters from the Oxford University Press, and commentary for the Hastings Center Report. She has presented her research at leading international venues, including the Oxford Global Health and Bioethics International Conference, Alan Turing Institute, and the World Congress of Psychiatry. She also continuously organizes workshops, series of lectures and events for public, professional and academic audiences.
Sedlakova, J., Lucivero, F., Pavarini, G., Kerasidou, A. (2025). Human-like Epistemic Trust? Navigating Responsible Human-AI Interaction in Mental Healthcare. American Journal of Bioethics. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2025.2526734.
Sedlakova, J. (2025). The Ethics of Humanlikeness of AI Therapy Chatbots: A commentary. The Hastings Report. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.5010.
Daniore, P./ Sedlakova, J.*, Zavattaro, F., Knieps, M., von Wyl, V., Benhamou, Y., Gille F. (2025). Public views on open data research in Switzerland: Implications for research, science communication, and policy. Public Understanding of Science. doi: 10.1177/09636625251330575.
Viganò, E., Hauser, Ch., Cacciatori, E., Ferrario, A., Sedlakova, J. (2025). Mapping and Mitigating the Pains of Responsible Artificial Intelligence Implementation: An Analysis of Swiss Organizations. IEEE Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS), Zürich, Switzerland, 2025, pp. 119-126, doi: 10.1109/SDS66131.2025.00023.
Sedlakova, J., Stanikic, M., Gille, F., Bernard, J., Horn, A.B., Wolf, M., Haag, C., Floris, J., Morgenshtern, G., Schneider, G., Zumbrunn Wojczyńska, A., Mouton Dorey, C., Ettlin, D.A., Gero, D., Friemel, T., Lu, Z., Papadopoulos, K., Schläpfer, S., Wang, N., von Wyl, V. (2025). Refining established practices for research question definition to foster interdisciplinary research skills in a digital age: Consensus study with nominal group technique. JMIR Medical Education. DOI: 10.2196/56369.
Morley, J., Hine, E., Roberts, H., Sirbu, R., Ashrafian, H., Blease, Ch., Boyd, M., Chen, J. L., Chiavegatto Filho, A. D. P., Coiera, E., Cohen, I. G., Fiske, A., Jayakumar, N., Kerasidou, A., Mandreoli, F., McCradden, M. D., Namuganza, S, Nsoesie, E. O., Parikh, R. B., Reddy, S., Sedlakova, J., Sunbul, T., van Baalen, S., van Kolfschooten, H., Floridi, L. (2025). Global Health in the Age of AI: Charting a Course for Ethical Implementation and Societal Benefit. Minds & Machines 35, 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-025-09730-3.
Sachdeva, M., Narayana, Ch., Wiedenkeller, M., Sedlakova, J., Bernard. J. (2025). A Design Space for the Critical Validation of LLM-Generated Tabular Data. ArXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04487.
Ferrario, A./Sedlakova J.*, Trachsel, M. (2024). The Role of Humanization and Robustness of Large Language Models in Conversational Artificial Intelligence for Individuals with Depression: A Critical Analysis. JMIR Mental Health. DOI: 10.2196/56569.
Sedlakova, J. (2024). Conversational AI for Psychotherapy and Its Role in the Space of Reason. Cosmos + Taxis, 12(5+6):80-87.
Sedlakova J., Trachsel, M. (2023). Conversational Artificial Intelligence in Psychotherapy: A New Therapeutic Tool or Agent? The American Journal of Bioethics. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2022.2048739.
Sedlakova, J., P. Daniore, A. Horn Wintsch, M. Wolf, M. Stanikic, Ch. Haag, Ch. Sieber, et al. (2023). Challenges and Best Practices for Digital Unstructured Data Enrichment in Health Research: A Systematic Narrative Review. PLOS Digital Health 2 (10): e0000347. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000347.
Sedlakova, J., A. L. Westermair, N. Biller-Andorno, Ch. A. Meier, M. Trachsel. (2023). Comparison of Analog and Digital Patient Decision Aids for the Treatment of Depression: A Scoping Review. Frontiers in Digital Health 1;5:1208889. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1208889.
Trachsel M., Sedlakova J. (2022). Ethics of telepsychiatry versus face-to-face treatment: let the patients make their autonomous choice. Journal of Medical Ethics. Jan;48(1):32-33. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2021-108073.
Biller-Andorno N., Aebi-Müller R., Salathé M., Sedlakova J. (2021). Ineffectiveness and unlikelihood of benefit: dealing with the concept of futility in medicine. SAMW Empfehlungen. Schweizer Akademie der medizinischen Wissenschaften.
Book Chapters
Sedlakova, J., Ferrario, A., Trachsel, M. (2025). Empathy in Mental Health Care Interventions by Conversational Artificial Intelligence. In: Empathy in Clinical Psychiatry and Mental Health Care: Clinical, Philosophical, and Scientific Perspectives. Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
Sedlakova, J., Trachsel, M. The Ethics of Digital Mental Health Care: Conversational Artificial Intelligence and Online Therapy. In: Mental Health Ethics: Current Controversies and Emerging Debates. Oxford University Press. (forthcoming).
* These authors contributed equally.