Abstract

The internet, either as a tool or as an area of research, adds moral worries to an already complicated research ethical backdrop. Agencies, professional associations and philosophers have formulated research ethical norms designed to help scientists to arrive at responsible solutions to the problems. Yet, many criticize this reliance on norms. Somewhat more precisely, many claim that research ethical norms do not offer guidance. In the literature at least three arguments to that effect can be found. First, the research ethical norms fail to guide since they are inconsistent. Second, they fail to guide since they are too opaque. Third, they fail to guide since they cannot handle the moral complexity of issues scientists doing e-research face. In this paper I argue that these arguments are weak. The arguments are, in their original formulations, rather unclear. I try to improve the situation by spelling out the arguments with reference to a certain set of research ethical norms, to a certain account of action-guidance and with reference to certain important distinctions. It then turns out that the arguments’ premises are either untenable or suffers from lack of relevance. The arguments do not force us to conclude that research ethical norms fail to guide.

Highlights

  • Researchers that make use of the internet as a tool by using databases and search engines or as a space of research by studying chat forums, homepages or blogs face ethical problems that arguably add to an already complicated research ethical context.1 How should researchers respond to problems to assure anonymity in internet-mediated research? Is the scientific value of the project high enough to outweigh failure of full anonymity? How should a researcher establish rapport1 3 Vol.:(0123456789) 67 Page 2 of 14H

  • Many claim that research ethical norms do not help scientists doing social media research.2Anne Beaulieu and Adolfo Estalella are foremost interested in institutional review board instructions, but do have more general norms found in ethical guides of traditional disciplines in ethnography in mind. “[C]ertain assumptions embedded in ethics guidelines do not address some of the conditions that are particular to e-research” (Beaulieu & Estalella, 2012, p. 25)

  • In their overview of ethical norms published by Research Councils UK, including guidelines issued by The British Psychological Society and The British Sociological Association, Joanna Taylor and Claudia Pagliari state that their findings “point to a deficit in ethical guidance for research involving data extracted from social media.” (Taylor & Pagliari, 2018, p. 2) Their analysis of the norms “indicates significant gaps in the ethical governance of research using data mined from social media, illustrated by the incompleteness and inconsistency of current guidelines”

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Researchers that make use of the internet as a tool by using databases and search engines or as a space of research by studying chat forums, homepages or blogs face ethical problems that arguably add to an already complicated research ethical context.. How should researchers respond to problems to assure anonymity in internet-mediated research? Is the scientific value of the project high enough to outweigh failure of full anonymity?

67 Page 2 of 14
Background
67 Page 4 of 14
67 Page 6 of 14
67 Page 8 of 14
67 Page 10 of 14
67 Page 12 of 14
Concluding Remarks
67 Page 14 of 14
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call