Research Ethics

I was particularly pleased to receive the comments from Rosanna Tarsiero after I sent an unsolicited email invite to the pilot exhibition. I think I’ll have to break up my response into different posts, since there is so much to work on.

On ethics Rosanna said,

As a starter on Internet research ethics:

It is *very* important that whatever the research is about we start with an ethical design and write a statement before starting collecting data.

That idea about writing a statement of ethics was just what I needed to do, to clarify my own ideas, to help with justification and to use in practise. I’m aware that the statement I’ve come up with is not fully comprehensive, there are some points which need adding, but I’ve also learned that no ethical policy ever can be complete and finished.

This is my statement as included in the report14 document and also included on my user page in the DARwiki:

Statement of Research Ethics

I will undertake each cycle or phase of research with a genuine intent to make improvements which I hope will bring benefit to myself and/or to others. Should it become apparent either to myself or as expressed by others that the action taken is having an opposite effect then I will abandon that cycle prematurely or take steps to mitigate the damage if the benefits are thought to substantially outweigh the disadvantages.

I will not take actions and decisions lightly, but after having given them serious reflective thought including an exploration of my own assumptions and motives.

I value the thoughts and opinions of others especially where they disagree with my own, and will endeavor to make space for them to be reported as a diversity with equal status.

Where personal writing is collected as data from anywhere other than fully public spaces, then permission to publish will be sought in each case, and anonymity will be offered as an option. In the case of data already published in public spaces where the implication of fair use is already granted, then I will ensure that the correct attribution remains attached to the author’s words but also be prepared to remove any such reference upon request, even after publication of my work.

The starter referred to is from the Association of Internet Researchers and that was a valuable lead in itself. I joined their mailing list just in time to hear one of the professors announce that he would no longer accept any of his students citing Wikipedia and an ensuing discussion which inspired Danah Boyd’s blog, and the appearance of Jimmy Wales to intervene on behalf of himself. I don’t yet know whether that discussion is typical of the AOIR, but if it it I will be a little disappointed not with the quality of discussion and views aired, but with the prevalent idea that Internet Research is all about looking things up on the internet for academic purposes. So maybe that particular group is the association for academic internet research, I’ll have to see.

Since then I’ve found a few other papers about Internet research ethics and added links to them on a new page – Ethics. If anyone knows more, please do add them in.

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