Practical advice for conducting ethical online experiments and questionnaires for United States psychologists

Abstract

It is increasingly easy and, therefore, increasingly common to conduct experiments and questionnaire studies in online environments. However, the online environment is not a data collection medium that is familiar to many researchers or to many research methods instructors. Because of this, researchers have received little information about how to address ethical issues when conducting online research. Researchers need practical suggestions on how to translate federal and professional ethics codes into this new data collection medium. This article assists United States psychologists in designing online studies that meet accepted standards for informed consent, deception, debriefing, the right to withdraw, security of test materials, copyright of participants' materials, confidentiality and anonymity, and avoiding harm.

Lisbon Symbol Database (LSD): Subjective norms for 600 symbols

“…By clicking on a hyperlink, participants were directed to a secure webpage that again informed them about the goals of the study and its expected duration (approximately 25 min). Participants were also informed that all of the data collected would be treated anonymously and that they could abandon the study at any point by simply closing the browser (for best practices in conducting Web surveys, see Barchard & Williams, 2008). After consenting to collaborate in the study (by checking the "I agree" option), participants were asked to provide information regarding their age, sex, educational level, and current occupation.…”

The viability of crowdsourcing for survey research

“…These studies underscore an important and often unrealized benefit of using online media for organizational research: the potential to reach a wider and more diverse population (Barchard & Williams, 2008;Dandurand, Shultz, & Onishi, 2008). Often, survey research relies on a homogeneous sample of undergraduates from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies (WEIRD; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010a, 2010b.…”

Building and managing an online panel with phpPanelAdmin

“…Finally, phpPanelAdmin can support the researcher in conducting research in an ethical manner (for details, see Barchard & Williams, 2008). For example, a researcher can obtain panelists' informed consent by including a consent form with a checkbox that is unchecked by default in the panel sign-up form that is part of phpPanelAdmin.…”