Scoping Review: Ethical Considerations in Online Ethnographic Research With Military Populations

Schuman, Donna L.; Highfill, Christine; Johnson, Amy; Henderson, Stephanie; Ognyanova, Pavleta

doi:10.1177/15562646211038161

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 41 publications

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“…issues within the guidance as well as ethical safeguards around such issues as potential confidentiality breaches, the collection of sensitive data, or the unauthorised reuse of it [50]. Health research has a long-and well-established tradition of ethical guidance.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical guidance for conducting health research with online communities: A scoping review of existing guidance

Harris,

Germain,

McCoy

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Online research methods have grown in popularity due in part to the globalised and far-reaching nature of the internet but also linked to the Covid-19 pandemic whereby restrictions to travel and face to face contact necessitated a shift in methods of research recruitment and data collection. Ethical guidance exists to support researchers in conducting online research, however this is lacking within health fields. This scoping review aims to synthesise formal ethical guidance for applying online methods within health research as well as provide examples of where guidance has been used. A systematic search of literature was conducted, restricted to English language records between 2013 and 2022. Eligibility focused on whether the records were providing ethical guidance or recommendations, were situated or relevant to health disciplines, and involved the use or discussion of online research methods. Following exclusion of ineligible records and duplicate removal, three organisational ethical guidance and 24 research papers were charted and thematically analysed. Four key themes were identified within the guidance documents, 1) consent, 2) confidentiality and privacy, 3) protecting participants from harm and 4) protecting researchers from harm with the research papers describing additional context and understanding around these issues. The review identified that there are currently no specific guidelines aimed at health researchers, with the most cited guidance coming from broader methodological perspectives and disciplines or auxiliary fields. All guidance discussed each of the four key themes within the wider context of sensitive topics and vulnerable populations, areas and issues which are often prominent within health research thus highlighting the need for unifying guidance specific for health researchers. Further research should aim to understand better how online health studies apply ethical principles, to support in informing gaps across both research and guidance.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical guidance for conducting health research with online communities: A scoping review of existing guidance

Harris,

Germain,

McCoy

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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A dialogue on trust in ethics processes for creative practice research education

Couzens,

Johnson,

Cattoni

2025

SGPE

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Purpose Securing ethical approval can be a frustrating and opaque experience for some creative practice research students who may find the processes required of them not well suited to their specific inquiry. This can lead to an erosion of trust between students and their institutions. This paper aims to synthesize perspectives representing both creative practice research supervisors and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to develop recommendations for improving processes and supporting creative practice research training. Design/methodology/approach The authors used dialogical inquiry (Wells et al., 2021) to facilitate a dialogue between the authors, who represent different stakeholders in the ethical review process for creative arts research students. Focus topics for the dialogue were developed collaboratively based on existing literature. Findings Based on the dialogue, the authors make the following recommendations: frame ethics as part of project design alongside aims and methodology rather than as project logistics; structure ethics review processes to ensure ongoing engagement between research students and IRBs; and share exemplars and templates as part of research training. Additionally, the authors advocate for the need to create continuing opportunities for dialogue. Originality/value Previous work interrogating ethical review processes for creative practice research has adopted a clear position from either a creative practice researcher or an IRB member perspective. This dialogue facilitates a novel synthesis of these positions, ensuring the recommendations support the objectives of both IRBs and creative practice researchers.

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Intrusiveness and the Public-private Divide in Netnography: A Situated, Structured Approach for Ethical Research in the Context of Closed, Group-based, or Hidden Social Media Behaviour

Demant,

Moretti

2024

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

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The nature of online social behaviour is largely changing, from communications taking place on open platforms to interactions occurring in hidden, group-based spaces or closed fora. Boccia Artieri (2017) has called this the new geography of unsearchable small conversations. This transformation challenges our current understanding and application of research ethics in qualitative digital sociology because, on one hand, we can no longer lean upon the approaches used by social data science to handle big and open data and, on the other, we cannot exclusively rely on established practices in qualitative sociology. Academic inquiry into these closed messaging threads and fora, however, remains of great societal importance, not least because of the rise of hate and extreme content in such spaces. With researchers now facing increased barriers when accessing social media (such as having to register an account, the inability to enter a group or chat without being invited, and so on), a rethinking of some of the long-standing cornerstones of ethical research is required for the digital age. The paper makes a methodological contribution to this field by delivering an assessment tool based on the methodology of the project Online Hateful Youth Sociality, which explores the use of memes to share hate on social media. The tool bridges the perspectives of digital sociology, criminology, and digital humanities with ethnographic real-world research to address the ethical issues of disclosure and intrusiveness, harm, the public or private nature of online spaces, and informed consent in the context of researching behaviour in small and hard-to-reach online groups. The assessment tool is presented in the form of an ethical decision flowchart that advocates for an approach that is not only situated but also structured. Ethical considerations are thus applied to the relevant issues depending on specific contexts but with clear, “step-by-step” assessment guidance.

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Scoping Review: Ethical Considerations in Online Ethnographic Research With Military Populations

Cited by 4 publications

References 41 publications

Ethical guidance for conducting health research with online communities: A scoping review of existing guidance

Ethical guidance for conducting health research with online communities: A scoping review of existing guidance

A dialogue on trust in ethics processes for creative practice research education

Intrusiveness and the Public-private Divide in Netnography: A Situated, Structured Approach for Ethical Research in the Context of Closed, Group-based, or Hidden Social Media Behaviour

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