St Andrews recently held a researchers forum on research integrity and ethics as part of the process of responding to the Concordat to Support Research Integrity. Speakers addressed a range of topics on research data management, dealing with sensitive topics and vulnerable populations.
Since we have been exploring a number of new issues arising from online questionnaire research, Ken had the opportunity to raise a number of issues needing further discussion. Recent trends in online questionnaire research raises the needs to revisit a number of classic ethics issues around consent, validity, withdrawal, deception and debriefing. These changes stem from changes in the way researchers relate to their participants in online settings – particularly through paid online panels and markets like Amazon Mechanical Turk.
We are pleased to be part of the discussion about these emerging trends and how best to enact the spirit of the key principles of ethical research,