Conducting Online Research Research Articles

Corporate Facebook pages: when “fans” attack

PurposeFacebook continues to play an increasingly necessary role in the corporate portfolio of stakeholder relations. Unlike traditional channels of corporate communication, Facebook allows for uncensored, unpredictable, two‐way conversations. This paper aims to engage thought and enact immediate action in the prevention and rehabilitation of a company's online reputation in the event of a Facebook wall attack.Design/methodology/approachBy conducting online research for an online subject and studying the historical perspectives of public outrage and a “fan's” dissatisfaction, the authors examine different approaches to corporate attacks. The case study of Nestlé's improper handling of a crisis on Facebook contrasted with examples of properly handled responses serve as guidelines that any company can utilize. The authors have provided seven steps that any business can incorporate into its crisis prevention plan.FindingsHarm, fear of harm and threatened values are the three basic sources of public outrage. The popularity of social media, particularly Facebook, provides a new venue for unhappy customers to publicly communicate their disdain. By relating to customers on a personal level and planning in advance, companies can recover from Facebook attacks quickly and with minimal damage.Originality/valueThe psychological underpinnings and science of outrage can be applied to the human behavior of social networking. Understanding why people complain and forecasting the inevitable outbreak of negativity provides valuable insight into avoiding potentially detrimental social media attacks. Real world examples shed insight into the proper handling of future situations. The seven steps for success provide a must‐have guide for any company competing in the digital realm.

Online Methods and Analyzing Knowledge-Production

Currently, many scholars have increasingly turned to the Internet to examine diasporic communities and corresponding identities. While I am happy that social scientists have embraced the use of online methods in studying communities formed within cyberspace, I also believe that we should continually reflect on whether our research is best served by conducting our studies online, offline, or in both arenas. In this article, I first address the seemingly “natural” convergence of two different scholarly communities that are deeply affected by transnationalism—those who study diasporas and migration and those who conduct research on online communities. Then, I discuss the use of online methods (particularly with regard to research on diasporas) and assess the benefits and challenges of conducting online research to study diasporic communities. This essay simultaneously advocates for the continued use of online methods, particularly in the study of diasporic communities, while also offering a cautionary tale on its possible overuse or misuse.

Literary research and Canadian literature: strategies and sources

This guide addresses the tools and best practices for selecting and evaluating print and electronic sources related to the extensive and varied literature of Canada. Beginning with an overview of the strategies needed to conduct online research, individual chapters examine general literary reference materials; relevant online library catalogs, including national and union library catalogs; scholarly journals; archival collections; microform and digital collections; periodicals, literary magazines, newspapers, and reviews; and Web and electronic resources. Special topics discussed include 'little magazines,' scholarly gateways, and cultural resources. The guide culminates in a chapter that illustrates the application of the strategies explored to solve a research problem. The strategies discussed within the guide are applicable to both canonical and lesser-known authors, therefore making this work relevant to anyone interested in researching Canadian literature.

Review: Annette N. Markham & Nancy K. Baym (Eds.) (2009). Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method

As suggested by the title, this edited collection of articles is aimed at creating a dialogue on crosscutting epistemological and methodological issues relating to qualitative internet study. The scope of the book is not to provide quick tips, but rather encourage the reader to seek new methods of conducting online research. The book is creatively structured into six parts, each one addressing a key question on methods. In addition to the two editors' contributions, 13 accomplished scholars from various disciplines intelligibly respond and share their own qualitative research experiences in online environments, providing a precise and valuable contribution to current debates in internet studies. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100396

A Guide to Conducting Online Research

A Guide to Conducting Online Research

Study Describes Research Scientists’ Information Seeking Behaviour, but Methodological Issues Make Usefulness as Evidence Debatable

A Review of: 
 Hemminger, B.M., Lu, D., Vaughan, K.T.L., & Adams, S. J. (2007). Information seeking behavior of academic scientists. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 58(14), 2205-2225.
 
 Abstract 
 
 Objective – To quantify the transition to electronic communication in information-seeking behaviour of academic scientists.
 
 Design – Census survey.
 
 Setting – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a large public research university.
 
 Subjects – Nine hundred two faculty, research staff, and graduate students involved in research in basic or medical science departments. Participants self-selected (26%) from 3523 recruited. The sample reflected the larger population in terms of gender, age, university position, and department.
 
 Methods – The authors developed a web-based survey and delivered it via PHP Survey Tool. They developed the questions to parallel similar earlier studies to allow for comparative analysis. The survey included 28 main questions with some questions including further follow-up questions depending on the initial answer. The instrument included three initial questions designed to reveal the participant’s place and role in the university, and further coding classified participants’ department as either basic or medical science. The questions included categorical, continuous, and open-ended types. While most questions focused on the scientists’ information seeking behaviour, the three final open-ended questions asked about their opinions of the library and ideal searching environment. Answers were transferred into a MySQL database, then imported into SAS to generate simple descriptive statistics.
 
 Main Results – Participants reported easy access to online resources, and a strong preference for conducting research online, even when access to a physical library is convenient. Infrequent visits to the library predominantly took place to utilize materials not available online, although the third most common answer for visiting was to take advantage of the library building as a quiet reading space (14%). Additional questions revealed both type and specifics of most popular sources for research, preferred journals, current awareness tools, reasons for choice of journal for publication, and use of bibliographic management tools.
 
 Conclusion – Scientists prefer online tools for conducting library research, although specific contexts influence the preference, and online articles may be printed out for reading or annotation. The participants are taking advantage of the developing online arena, utilizing databases for research, as well as literature searching, access to journals and conference proceedings, and to keep abreast of current research.

A guide to conducting online research

A Guide to Using Technology in Research is designed to support students, academics, and practitioner researchers in using technology as part of their research. The book begins by looking at what questions to ask and how to prepare to conduct online research, then concentrates on particular technologies and how to employ them effectively, before concluding with a discussion of the peculiarities of conducting research in the online environment.

Consent in Cyberspace

Social networking sites such as MySpace and virtual communities such as on-line support groups can be a rich source of data for researchers. These sites can be an effective way of reaching and researching young people in order to address their particular health needs. Internet-based research is also potentially risky and exploitative. There is some guidance for conducting research online, but there are no detailed or universally accepted ethics guidelines for research of webspaces such as MySpace or virtual communities in which young people participate. One question that arises is--If MySpace is a public webspace, can research be done without consent? In this paper I investigate ethical issues surrounding young people's consent in cyber research. I identify issues that help determine whether consent is needed, offer suggestions for dealing with consent in cyberspace and add my voice to the call for a resource of case studies--indispensible in the development of guidelines and the education of researchers and research ethics committees.

Conducting Research Online: Challenges Facing Researchers in Family and Consumer Sciences

A substantial number of consumers now have access to e-mail and the Internet. The growth in e-mail and Internet usage makes electronic surveying an appealing means for conducting research. Researchers and practitioners in the field of family and consumer sciences are increasingly using online surveys to collect data from a variety of target populations. The purpose of this article is to provide a guide to those interested in conducting surveys online and to highlight some of the potentials and pitfalls they can expect.

Secondary Online Education: A Review And Synthesis Of Central Elements

In this paper the authors illuminate the distance education field of endeavor to point out that online education can now be found at most educational levels (elementary, secondary, post-secondary) globally. This enterprise requires a multitude of traits which are detailed herein in order to alert the new online educator and remind the veteran educator of the essential elements required to achieve desired outcomes. To instruct online clearly requires informed goal setting, clear processes, and predictable outcomes, from the onset. As well designers need to examine current research, conduct online research, and listen to feedback from online students to maintain and nurture both the program and the students. Some key factors of online education are laid out which include strategic intent (planning), content (curriculum), and pedagogy (incorporating current learning theories into delivery models). As well several underpinning qualities are described that must be present such as the teacher’s quality of online instruction, and level of expertise in distance learning. All online educators need to be aware of the student (profile of successful online learners, interaction), assessment/evaluation (rigorous, comparable and authentic), support (student support and training on using the technology), technical infrastructure, and the need to review program frequently which is key to the development and maintenance of successful online education efforts

Practical advice for conducting ethical online experiments and questionnaires for United States psychologists

It is increasingly easy and, therefore, increasingly common to conduct experiments and questionnaire studies in online environments. However, the online environment is not a data collection medium that is familiar to many researchers or to many research methods instructors. Because of this, researchers have received little information about how to address ethical issues when conducting online research. Researchers need practical suggestions on how to translate federal and professional ethics codes into this new data collection medium. This article assists United States psychologists in designing online studies that meet accepted standards for informed consent, deception, debriefing, the right to withdraw, security of test materials, copyright of participants' materials, confidentiality and anonymity, and avoiding harm.

Methodological issues in online data collection

This paper is a report of a study to evaluate the use of an online data collection method to survey early survivors of childhood cancer about their physical and psychosocial characteristics and health-related quality of life. A major advantage in conducting web-based nursing research is the ability to involve participants who are challenging to study because of their small numbers or inaccessibility because of geographic location. As paediatric oncology patients and early survivors of childhood cancer are often not easily accessible because of their small numbers at single institutions, web-based research methods have been proposed as a potentially effective approach to collect data in studies involving these clinical populations. Guided by published literature on using the Internet for data collection, an online protocol was developed; this included construction of a website, development of a homepage and interactive HyperText Markup Language pages and the posting of the study link on various websites. Data collection occurred over a 6-month period between December 2005 and May 2006. Despite using strategies in conducting online research cited in published literature, the recruitment of subjects was very prolonged and the volume of missing data among many respondents excluded them from the study and created bias within the study's results. Web-based, online data collection methods create opportunities to conduct research globally, especially among difficult to access populations. However, web-based research requires careful consideration of how the study will be advertised and how data will be collected to ensure high quality data and validity of the findings.

Teaching Students to Study Online Communities Ethically

You Have Students Do What?How can we teach students to do research on Internet-based communications technologies in an ethical fashion? At the Georgia Institute of Technology, we offer a graduate class called Computer Science 6470, Design of Online (see http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/teaching/). Approximately forty students enroll each time it is offered (every other spring). Course readings discuss topics like the nature of community, identity construction, management of deviant behavior, research methods, and data analysis techniques. For their midterm projects, we require students to study an online community. They are asked to use principles from Amy Jo Kim's book Community Building on the Web to structure an investigation of design features of the site and how it functions (Kim, 2000).I imagine the reader trembling at the thought-you send students out to study real people online? Forty of them? Aren't you afraid they will wreak havoc, and you will find yourself in the office of your Dean or IRB Chair with some explaining to do?Fortunately, in five offerings of the class to date, no havoc has resulted. In this paper, I document how we prepare students to understand the complexities of conducting research online in an ethical fashion. I show how our approach has evolved over the years since the course was first created in 1998, and share lessons learned. Key design decisions include,* One IRB protocol for the entire class.* A notation in the risks section of the consent form that the researchers are students just learning to do research.* Different consent forms for different types of subjects:A web-based consent form for adult subjects. This requires an IRB waiver of documentation of consent. (Not a waiver of consent-just of its documentation.)Paper-based parental consent and child assent forms for subjects under 18 years old (and other vulnerable populations).* A research method focused on participant observation and interviews.* Requirement that students do most of their interviews on the phone or in person, not online.* A requirement that students openly describe themselves as researchers, and use no identity deception, even if that is common on the site.* A prohibition from logging otherwise ephemeral conversation without explicit permission.* Careful choice of study sites:All site choices must be approved by the instructor.Sites that cater to children are discouraged, because of the difficulty of recruiting subjects and getting parental consent.Sites on sensitive subject matter are discouraged, unless the student has a strong personal connection to the subject and extra care is taken.Sites where the students are already regular members are discouraged.Successful sites typically make better study sites than failing ones.* An approach to disguising material in published accounts that depends on the nature of the subject matter.Subject names are changed.Site names are usually disguised, except where this is impossible.If the site can't be disguised, then more caution is needed in disguising individuals quoted in the paper.Direct quotes of material that is publicly searchable on the Internet are possible in most cases, but not used if the topic of the paper is sensitive.I will discuss each of these in turn. Additionally, I will review some of the challenges we have faced over the years. In this account, I will assume the reader is already at least somewhat familiar with ethical issues that arise in Internet research. Our current consent form is included as an appendix and a full set of our documents appears on our website (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/ ethics). Although our consent form was developed as part of the evolution of this class, members of the Electronic Learning Communities laboratory (http:// www.cc.gatech.edu/elc) often find ourselves using modified versions of it in many of our studies of Internet-based phenomena. …

The Ethics of Using the Internet to Collect Qualitative Research Data

The practice of conducting research online is in its infancy. Consequently there is debate concerning the ethical implications of online data collection. We outline three approaches to online data collection and focus specifically on the issues of consent and anonymity of participants. We conclude that ethical issues raised when planning and implementing online data collection are no different to those raised by more traditional approaches to data collection.

It is out there . . . but where? The road to online research in art history (the Oxford experience)

Oxford University’s Learning Technologies Group (LTG) runs workshops at the beginning of every academic year for each new intake of art history graduates. They have evolved over a number of years into a method both of informing students about what is available online in art history, and a means of offering them a strategy for conducting online research. It is notoriously difficult to get students to attend anything smacking of IT and its related subjects. As far as they are concerned, IT is already in their blood, and Google is the main tool for finding the most useful information on any subject. It is certainly difficult to compete with Google – I use it in my work and leisure frequently! However, getting two million hits on any one search and trying to determine who is behind the information found should be cause for serious concern, especially when conducting academic research.

Bringing oversight review in line with online research

The purpose of an oversight structure or institution is to protect human subjects from research that would pose unacceptable dangers or deny human rights. Review boards provide an independent assessment of research proposals. This additional level of scrutiny is meant to provide an additional level of protection for human subjects. However, oversight of human subject research, as currently carried out in the bureaucratic, rule‐based, clinically‐biased American system, is too cumbersome with regard to online research. In addition, it is not conducive to the training of ethical Internet researchers. Internet research differs from traditional human subject research in many ways, and the oversight rules governing traditional research do not easily relate to the complexities of conducting research online. Online researchers do not oppose the foundational principles of non‐maleficence (avoiding harm) and autonomy, nor do they reject the ideals of informed consent and confidentiality, nevertheless, they face practical dilemmas in attempting to follow these principles and apply these ideals in the various Internet domains. The current oversight system is ill‐equipped to assist. A conservative response to this problem of fit might entail adjustments to the oversight system that, in the case of the American system, would entail modifications to the Common Rule and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). I will argue in this paper, instead, that re‐structuring is needed to allow more oversight authority for Internet researchers. I will utilize Consequentialism and Virtue Ethics in making this case.

NLINKS: Online Research and Web Site Development

BACKGROUNDThe Network for Language in Nursing Knowledge Systems (NLINKS) was the product of a 1998 NANDA Board of Directors brainstorming session. As a project, it was approved by the membership at the NANDA conference in Orlando, Florida in 2000. It became an online reality in fall 2001, and a summary of its development was presented at the NNN 2002 conference in Chicago, IL.MAIN CONTENT POINTSNLINKS provides the infrastructure needed for Web development opportunities in the field of language development. At present, NLINKS consists of the following components: Information page, an “About NLINKS” page, a Concept Analysis Center, a Research Center, and a Membership/Donor page. While anyone is free to use the information provided on the site, a paid membership in NLINKS confers two privileges that are especially relevant to networking worldwide. NLINKS members may use the site to conduct online research, or use the domain name and infrastructure to develop a Special Interest Center.Research investigators may develop online surveys, diagnostic tests, online health promotion tools, as well as other applications for completion by visitors to the site or by subjects recruited by the investigators. Taxonomists, informaticists, international colleagues, and others may be interested in developing an NLINKS center for their own special interest purposes. The process from application through implementation is similar for researchers or special interest groups. It entails six steps: (a) designing a site map for the pages desired and accompanying business profile, (b) negotiating a price with NLINKS's coordinator and Web development firm, (c) submitting a research proposal with institutional review board approval if human research is to be conducted, (d) establishing formal contractual relationships among all parties, (e) raising funds or obtaining grant funds to cover the cost, and (f) constructing the research or special interest center pages with staff from the Web development firm.CONCLUSIONSDevelopment and use continues as we strive to expand the site.

A Guide to Planning and Conducting Research in Contemporary British History on the Internet

The internet is now a useful research tool for historians of contemporary Britain. This article reviews on-line resources that can aid in planning research and in conducting research on-line in post-1945 British history. It offers resources that will be helpful to scholars, and emphasises especially on-line information for Americans and other foreign scholars travelling to Britain. It concludes with speculation about the likely future usefulness of the commercialised internet in this field of history.

Building subject‐specific guides to Internet resources

Librarians can provide leadership in the era of networked information retrieval by developing subject‐specific guides to Internet resources. The traditional skills of librarianship which include the identification, selection, evaluation, description, and organization of information resources are proving to be highly valuable in the Internet environment. A collection of these topical guides is currently accessible through the Clearinghouse for Subject‐Oriented Internet Resource Guides. The success of this Clearinghouse demonstrates the demand for value‐added collections of Internet information. Provides step‐by‐step instructions for selecting a topic, conducting online research, and building a useful subject‐specific guide.