Using Written Consent Forms When Conducting Non-Elite Qualitative Research: Reflections from Zambia

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Many ethics review bodies now routinely recommend the use of written consent forms as the default method of obtaining informed consent, including for research conducted in African countries. Although it is generally possible for researchers to justify the use of alternative methods, this is not always the case and researchers are sometimes forced to use consent forms even when they are not appropriate. This article details the rise of written consent processes in the social sciences before it outlines the negative consequences associated with using them in certain contexts. Drawing upon the author’s research experiences in Zambia, it argues that written consent procedures are not always good at ensuring respondents are genuinely informed, that they are often insensitive, and that they can be detrimental to the quality of research.