Increasingly, research data is gathered from online discussion groups, blogs, social media, websites, as well as that is gathered through online interviews, questionnaires, and other digital forms of data collection. Central to each of these data collection methods is the need to consider the ethical implications of data gathered in this way. The Economic and Social Research Council note:
“Researchers are now making greater use of datasets which have been generated through internet-mediated technology and social media. Researchers need to consider the ethical issues which arise; for example, the interpretation of anonymity and whether participants (e.g. social media users) would consider data in the public domain to be private, the meaning of informed consent in this context and the important issue of what permissions a researcher has over the data supplied by the data producer (e.g. Facebook or Twitter data).”
Please consult the following sources for information on the ethical considerations of research conducted online:
- Association of Internet Researchers: Ethical guidelines
- British Psychological Society: Ethics Guidelines for Internet-mediated Research
- British Sociological Association: Ethics Guidelines and Collated Resources for Digital Research
- Economic and Social Research Council: Framework for Research Ethics
- Market Research Society: Guidelines for Online Research
- Norwegian National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities: A Guide to Internet Research Ethics
- Sage Research Methods: Social media research and ethics
- UK Research Integrity Office: Guidance Note on Internet Mediated Research
- University of Aberdeen a guide to ethics and social media
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