CONDUCTING AN ETHICAL ONLINE STUDY Janet Salmons, PhD Chapter 5

OBJECTIVES After reading and reflecting on Chapter 5, you will understand design considerations for:  Communicating ethically with and about participants at all stages of the research process.  Applying ethical codes and theories to your research design and plans.  Crafting an appropriate consent agreement.  Informing participants about the study and verifying consent.  Reflecting on your own ethical stance and addressing your own potential conflicts of interest and researcher bias.

FOUR ISSUES THAT MATTER IN ETHICAL ONLINE RESEARCH Researchers must explain how they will:  Protect human subjects.  Obtain appropriate informed consent from participants.  Respect the research site.  Safeguard participants’ identities and data.

PROTECT HUMAN SUBJECTS A human participant is a living individual whom a researcher obtains data about through interaction with that individual or with private information that identifies that person (LeCompte, 2008, p. 805). For our purposes, the human participant is the person on the other side of the monitor, the ‘user’ with a mobile device who is typing on the keyboard, chatting on a video call or uploading images or files. The human may be represented or expressed online by diverse avatars, pseudonyms or screen names. LeCompte, M. (2008) Secondary participants. In L.M. Given (ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

OBTAIN APPROPRIATE INFORMED CONSENT  Informed consent describes the actual agreement as well as the process researchers engage in to ensure that individuals are informed about the study before they voluntarily agree to participate.

INFORMING PARTICIPANTS BEFORE THE STUDY Introduce yourselfGenerate interest in study participation Let potential participants know what you need to achieve, purpose Reassure potential participants about protection of data, anonymity, etc. Communicate specifics about time, technology access or other requirements

INFORMING PARTICIPANTS DURING THE STUDY Reminders about follow-up interviews, observations or member checking Address any changes in the study that vary from those in the original consent agreement Signal emergent directions such as new questions to discuss in follow-up interviews or observations Reiterate use of data in publications or presentations

RESPECT THE RESEARCH SITE  How can you determine whether a site is appropriate for research?  What norms, cultures or protocols do you need to respect in an online community, discussion, blog or website?  How would you learn about users’ expectations?

IS THE RESEARCH SITE PUBLIC OR PRIVATE OR ?  Evaluate the nature of the site, types of data to be collected, and choose approach accordingly.  What issues can you identify in relation to determining the degree to which a site is public or private, and how to proceed?

#1 CHALLENGE FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ONLINE: PROTECTING HUMAN SUBJECTS & THEIR DIGITAL IDENTITIES How do your identities vary depending on the online activity or site? What do you think the most important dilemmas are for researchers who want to protect human participants? How would you recommend that online researchers address these issues?

THINK ABOUT HOW TO APPLY RESEARCH ETHICS ONLINE To determine the ethical approach that outlines with the research design, what questions should you ask about the responsibility of the researcher to protect human participants and their online identities, and respect the online research site? How do research ethics relate to data quality?

QUESTIONS FOR STUDIES USING EXTANT DATA TypeResearcher & Participants Ethical Considerations: How would you address them? Studies using existing materials developed without the researcher’s influence. No direct contact with Individual participants. Could the participant(s) be identified based on the data? On what basis (permissions, user agreements) were archives assembled? Was data anonymized or not? Is the subject matter sensitive? Is the subject matter protected (such as medical information?) Will the researcher use information from users’ profiles? Will the researcher use data from more than one platform? Do terms of usage vary? Might secondary participants or bystanders be present? Do users reveal personal information because they lack digital literacy or awareness of online privacy?

QUESTIONS FOR STUDIES USING ELICITED OR ENACTED METHODS TypeResearcher & Participants Ethical Considerations: How would you address them? Studies using data elicited from participants in response to the researcher’s questions or prompts or generated with participants during the study. Interaction and collaboration between researcher and one or more participants. How will the researcher inform participants before and during the study? Has the researcher clarified all expectations for the participant? Has the researcher discussed use of images, quotations or other characteristics that could potentially identify the participant? How will consent be verified? Are specific permissions needed from a research site/list/community?

ETHICS AND THE QUALITATIVE E-RESEARCH FRAMEWORK Ethics is central to every stage of the research process. Chapter 4 presented ethics theories and codes. Chapter 5 has focused on applying these concepts.