scholarly journals Internet research ethics and the policy gap for ethical practice in online research settings

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Jacqueline G Warrell ◽  
Michele Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Ethics Policy ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

A growing number of education and social science researchers design and conduct online research. In this review, the Internet Research Ethics (IRE) policy gap in Canada is identified along with the range of stakeholders and groups that either have a role or have attempted to play a role in forming better ethics policy. Ethical issues that current policy and guidelines fail to address are interrogated and discussed. Complexities around applying the human subject model to internet research are explored, such as issues of privacy, anonymity, and informed consent. The authors call for immediate action on the Canadian ethics policy gap and urge the research community to consider the situational, contextual, and temporal aspects of IRE in the development of flexible and responsive policies that address the complexity and diversity of internet research spaces.  

scholarly journals Detecting, Preventing, and Responding to “Fraudsters” in Internet Research: Ethics and Tradeoffs

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer E. F. Teitcher ◽  
Walter O. Bockting ◽  
José A. Bauermeister ◽  
Chris J. Hoefer ◽  
Michael H. Miner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Institutional Review Boards ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Institutional Review ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Fraudulent Activity ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

Research that recruits and surveys participants online is increasing, but is subject to fraud whereby study respondents — whether eligible or ineligible — participate multiple times. Online Internet research can provide investigators with large sample sizes and is cost efficient. Internet-based research also provides distance between the researchers and participants, allowing the participant to remain confidential and/or anonymous, and thus to respond to questions freely and honestly without worrying about the stigma associated with their answers. However, increasing and recurring instances of fraudulent activity among subjects raise challenges for researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). The distance from participants, and the potential anonymity and convenience of online research allow for individuals to participate easily more than once, skewing results and the overall quality of the data.

Virtue ethics, situationism and casuistry: toward a digital ethics beyond exemplars

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastiaan Vanacker
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Ethics ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

Purpose This paper aims to propose an ethical approach best suited to dealing with the issues of digital ethics in general and internet research ethics in particular. Design/methodology/approach This article engages with the existing literature on virtue ethics, situationism and digital (research) ethics. Findings A virtue-based casuistic method could be well-suited to deal with issues relating to digital ethics in general and internet research ethics in particular as long as it can take place in communities with shared practices and traditions. Originality/value These insights could add and further deepen the rich debate about research ethics that is already ongoing within the internet research community.

Internet Research Ethics Questions and Considerations

2011 ◽  
pp. 397-402
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Information Ethics ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Parallel Lines ◽  
Online Catalogs ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

The Internet, as a global research phenomenon, has developed along two parallel lines: as a medium for research (e.g., databases, electronic indexes, online catalogs) and as a field or locale of research (e.g., MUDs, MOOs, online communities, Usenet, listservs, blogs, etc.). This article will discuss this second phenomenon, and the ethical implications that arise with such research endeavors, an emerging field known as Internet Research Ethics (IRE). Specifically, this article will call attention to the major areas of online research ethics, while acknowledging that hard-and-fast “answers” to some of the questions are elusive. IRE fits into a larger framework of research and information ethics, both of which have a longer history and more firmly established research base from which to inform this growing field.

Ethical Dilemmas in Online Research

2011 ◽  
pp. 734-739
Author(s):  
R. Melville
Keyword(s):  
Data Privacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Uniform Code

Online research raises unique ethical concerns (Ess & AoIR, 2002), including the treatment and recruitment of participants, gaining consent, accessing electronic forms of data, privacy, and responsibility to the participants of online mediums (e.g., discussion lists and groups). Until the mid-1990s, very little attention was paid to ethical issues in online research for the following reasons: • This communication medium was a very recent phenomenon (Ess & AoIR, 2002; Mann & Steward, 2000) • Internet research posed different ethical challenges for researchers in comparison to conventional face-to-face settings • Existing ethical regulations and ethics review boards did not cover the new ethical issues raised by Internet research • It was too difficult to develop a uniform code of ethical conduct for Internet research given the diverse disciplines, countries, and cultural groups using the Internet (Ess & AoIR, 2002) • The complexity of Internet technology itself, which made adapting conventional ethical practices and processes problematic (Anders cited in Mann & Stewart, 2000; Mann & Stewart, 2000; Thomas, 1996; Whittaker, 2002)

scholarly journals Internet Research Ethics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dag Elgesem ◽  
Charles Ess ◽  
Anders Olof Larsson ◽  
Marika Lüders ◽  
Robindra Prabhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

scholarly journals Reflections on internet research ethics from language-focused research on web-based mourning: revisiting the private/public distinction as a language ideology of differentiation

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 229-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Korina Giaxoglou
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Web Based ◽  
James Wright ◽  
Key Aspects

AbstractThe present article addresses ethical issues and tensions that have arisen in the context of language-focused research on web-based mourning. It renders explicit the process of ethical decision-making in research practice, illustrating key aspects of a process approach to research ethics, which calls for reflection on ethical issues as an integral and dynamic part of the project (Markham and Buchanan 2015. Ethical considerations in digital research contexts. In James Wright (ed.) Encyclopedia for Social & Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Press. 606–613; Page et al. 2014. Researching Language and Social Media: A student guide. Oxon: Routledge). In addition, the article draws attention to some vexing ethical tensions raised in research practice and, in particular, to the uses of the terms private and public in research ethics frameworks and in discipline-specific discussions. Based on Gal’s (2005. Language ideologies compared: metaphors of public/private. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15 (1): 23–38) semiotic investigation of the private/public opposition, it is shown how the two categories are used as a language ideology of differentiation that discursively contrasts spaces and forms of emotional communication. It is argued that such metaphorical uses of the terms limit their currency in internet research on language, mourning, and death online, which tends to feature the construction and staging of a public self in semi-public contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the issues raised in language-focused research on web-based mourning for research ethics as method (Markham 2004. Method as ethic, ethic as method. Journal of Information Ethics 15 (2): 37–55) and calls for the critical study of the key concepts that underlie research ethics stances as a key step in rethinking – or ‘undoing’ – ethics (Whiteman 2012. Undoing Ethics: Rethinking Practice in Online Research. London: Springer).

scholarly journals RESEARCH ETHICS PRACTICES IN A CHANGING SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina E. Kinder-Kurlanda ◽  
Katrin Weller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Internet Research Ethics

In our work we study practical approaches to internet research ethics with a logitudinal perspective. We have interviewed more than 40 social media researchers in 2013-2014 using a semi-structured qualitative interview approach. From these interviews we gained insights into the challenges of everyday research practices at the various stages of the research process, as well as into motivations for specific approaches and critical reflections on research design and decision making, particularly concerning research ethics. At the end of 2019 we started re-interviewing the participants in our study and will continue to do so over the next months. In addition to questions about the details of everyday data work and the rationales behind (ethical) decision making, we are asking participants what has changed in the way they conduct research with social media. Based on our interviews as well as the ongoing discussions of Internet Research Ethics in the community, this paper focuses on the ethical dimensions of social media research practices and how they have evolved over the past years. Between our two interview periods, the social media landscape has witnessed several changes, including incidents like the "Cambridge Analytica scandal", which have also created ethical discussions in the broader public. By asking researchers about their everyday work, our research contributes to a look behind the scenes of "life as an internet researcher", as phrased in the list of topics in the call for papers.

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