Ethics of Recruiting Research Subjects Through Social Media

Abstract

Bhatia-Lin and associates [2019] consider ethical and regulatory issues when social media platforms are used to track and locate research subjects who were recruited during hospitalization. They mention using social media for recruiting research subjects only in passing, but this aspect warrants deeper exploration. An important value of social media platforms is that they can cast a broad net in providing generalized information, allowing researchers to recruit otherwise inaccessible participants on a global scale. Insufficient enrollment accounts for up to 60% of delayed or incomplete clinical and translational investigations, which significantly impedes scientifically valuable research [Gelinas et al. 2017]. When an investigation is canceled or its conclusions weakened by insufficient enrollment, subjects are unfortunately exposed to risks, burdens, and inconveniences for little positive benefit. The use of social media opens the door to the potential for a wide variety of information to become publicly accessible, including availability of research studies. Protecting confidentiality and privacy is a duty owed to possible research participants. Yet, these duties become challenging to meet within the arena of social media, as compared to institutional databases and highly secured electronic medical records.While some recommend that social media recruitment ought to be assessed in the same manner and with the same general ethical principles as traditional recruitment [Gelinas et al. 2017], i.e., principles stemming from the Belmont Report, investigators must be particularly sensitive to such ethical issues as a timely and properly executed informed consent process, the need for transparency, and protection of vulnerable subjects. Social media posts by recruiters must be clearly descriptive and accurate in order to avoid misleading potential research participants. To ensure appropriate ethics oversight, research protocols sent to institutional review boards should describe in detail the intention to use social media as a recruitment tool and the recruiting methods that will be employed. Informed ConsentThe right to be informed originates from both legal and ethical principles that establish an individual's autonomous right to decide what happens to his or her body, as well as respect for privacy based on respect for persons and beneficence. Consent forms protect both

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