Abstract

Our chapter presents a scoping review of published scientific studies or case studies of scientific studies that utilise both citizen scientists and Internet of Things devices. Specifically, we selected studies where the authors had included at least a short discussion of the ethical issues encountered during the research process. Having conducted a search of five databases (IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and PubMed), we identified 631 potential results. Following abstract and title screening, and then full text eligibility assessment, we identified 34 published articles that matched our criteria. We then analysed the full text for these articles inductively and deductively, coding ethical issues into three main categories. These categories were autonomy and data privacy, data quality, and intellectual property. We also analysed the full text of these articles to see what strategies researchers took to resolve these ethical issues, as well as any legal implications raised. Following this analysis, our discussion provides recommendations for researchers who wish to integrate citizen scientists and Internet of Things devices into their research. First, all citizen science projects should integrate a data privacy protocol to protect the confidentiality of participants. Secondly, scientific researchers should consider any potential issues of data quality, including whether compromises might be required, before establishing a project. Finally, all intellectual property issues should be clarified both at the start of the project and during its life-cycle. Researchers should also consider any ethical issues that might flow from the use of commercially available Internet of Things devices for research.

Highlights

  • This review seeks to identify and address the ethical issues arising from a collision between two innovation trends in scientific research

  • We address the ethical, legal and social factors raised by the articles identified via this scoping review

  • This review identifies ethical issues that may sit outside the realm of a specific field of legislative regulation

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Summary

Introduction

This review seeks to identify and address the ethical issues arising from a collision between two innovation trends in scientific research. The widespread availability of these Internet of Things tools increases the capacity of researchers to collect and process enormous amounts of data (Rothstein et al, 2015; Auffray et al, 2016). Scientific projects involving citizen participants may carry a number of ethical complications, including those that may not be immediately apparent to the research team (Cooper et al, 2019). These ethical considerations may be further exacerbated by the ubiquity and massive

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