Ethical considerations in the use of secondary data for built environment research

Abstract

Research in the built environment might involve the collection of either primary or secondary data or both. Owing to increased difficulties in obtaining valid and reliable primary data, the use of secondary data for built environment research can be seen as a highly ethical practice, saving considerable time and other resources. Moreover, new analyses of existing datasets could provide fresh insights into the data. For primary research involving data collection from human participants, using methods such as questionnaire surveys, and interviews, built environment researchers typically obtain ethical approvals before conducting research. However, the need to exercise ethical judgements and obtain explicit and informed consent from the subjects could be overlooked sometimes while working with existing or secondary datasets. In the absence of appropriate ethical considerations, a secondary data analysis could result in the disclosure of sensitive information of individuals because secondary data vary in terms of the amount of identifying information they contain, ranging from anonymous data to data with identifying information. The main ethical issues about research design, data collection and analysis, data storage and disposal, and dissemination of the findings in research based on secondary datasets in the context of the built environment are covered in this chapter.