Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Typical research standards will provide guidance on issues such as:
•
sampling
•
participant protection/informed consent
•
data acquisition
•
data management
•
conflict of interest.
Whileanumberoftopicswillbediscussedinthefollowingsectionrelatingtothe
unique issues presented by online research, readers are encouraged to review
the research standards in a given discipline before embarking on a research
project. A list of some potential sources follows:
http://onlineethics.org/reseth/index.html (engineering)
http://www.mra-net.org/pdf/expanded_code.pdf (marketing)
http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/leftnav/ethics/code_of_ethics_table_of_contents
(sociology)
http://www.apa.org/science/standards.html (educational testing)
http://www.srcd.org/ethicalstandards.html (child development)
http://www.ethicsweb.ca/resources/research/ (collective listing)
Tips 'n Tricks
Guidelines
•
Review discipline-specific guidelines.
•
Note the types of questions researchers might want to ask themselves.
•
Consider the types of questions that might arise from your chosen method
in a review process.
•
Think like a funder or review board and consider what reviewers might be
looking for.
•
Identify how you'll address technical questions related to security of
data, protection of participants, and so on (data storage, data manage-
ment, downloading online, file encryption, etc.)
Ethical considerations
At some point in study design, a researcher should spend time evaluating
ethical considerations. Many people believe that “ethical” and “legal” are
considered one and the same. Researchers, however, know otherwise. There
are times when something may be considered legal, such as a study that
deploys deception, but the practice may not be considered acceptable in a
