Ethical Issues In Qualitative Research Research Articles

Reporting of Ethical Considerations in Qualitative Research Utilizing Social Media Data on Public Health Care: Scoping Review.

The internet community has become a significant source for researchers to conduct qualitative studies analyzing users' views, attitudes, and experiences about public health. However, few studies have assessed the ethical issues in qualitative research using social media data. This study aims to review the reportage of ethical considerations in qualitative research utilizing social media data on public health care. We performed a scoping review of studies mining text from internet communities and published in peer-reviewed journals from 2010 to May 31, 2023. These studies, limited to the English language, were retrieved to evaluate the rates of reporting ethical approval, informed consent, and privacy issues. We searched 5 databases, that is, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane, and Embase. Gray literature was supplemented from Google Scholar and OpenGrey websites. Studies using qualitative methods mining text from the internet community focusing on health care topics were deemed eligible. Data extraction was performed using a standardized data extraction spreadsheet. Findings were reported using PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. After 4674 titles, abstracts, and full texts were screened, 108 studies on mining text from the internet community were included. Nearly half of the studies were published in the United States, with more studies from 2019 to 2022. Only 59.3% (64/108) of the studies sought ethical approval, 45.3% (49/108) mentioned informed consent, and only 12.9% (14/108) of the studies explicitly obtained informed consent. Approximately 86% (12/14) of the studies that reported informed consent obtained digital informed consent from participants/administrators, while 14% (2/14) did not describe the method used to obtain informed consent. Notably, 70.3% (76/108) of the studies contained users' written content or posts: 68% (52/76) contained verbatim quotes, while 32% (24/76) paraphrased the quotes to prevent traceability. However, 16% (4/24) of the studies that paraphrased the quotes did not report the paraphrasing methods. Moreover, 18.5% (20/108) of the studies used aggregated data analysis to protect users' privacy. Furthermore, the rates of reporting ethical approval were different between different countries (P=.02) and between papers that contained users' written content (both direct and paraphrased quotes) and papers that did not contain users' written content (P<.001). Our scoping review demonstrates that the reporting of ethical considerations is widely neglected in qualitative research studies using social media data; such studies should be more cautious in citing user quotes to maintain user privacy. Further, our review reveals the need for detailed information on the precautions of obtaining informed consent and paraphrasing to reduce the potential bias. A national consensus of ethical considerations such as ethical approval, informed consent, and privacy issues is needed for qualitative research of health care using social media data of internet communities.

Using Debate to Promote Students’ Reflective Understanding of Research Ethics

This article reported a qualitative study that examined the use of debate to promote students’ reflective understanding of research ethics. The study was conducted in a qualitative methodology class for undergraduate students in psychology. Data were collected from 36 students attending the class by using an open-ended questionnaire. There were four questions in the questionnaire which were intended to gauge students’ understanding of ethical issues in qualitative research. The questionnaire was distributed twice, before and after the students engaged in the debate. During the debate, the students had to argue about dilemmatic research situations that reflected ethical issues in research. Thematic analysis was used to qualitatively examine and compare the students’ responses, before and after the debate. The findings suggested four themes that represented a shift in the students’ understanding of research ethics. These themes indicated the emergence of more contextual and reflective views of research ethics among the students.Â

Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Empirical Approaches to Salafism

Abstract The special issue “Empirical Approaches to Salafism: Methodological and Ethical Challenges” addresses urgent methodological and ethical issues in qualitative research on Salafism. The contributing authors discuss these in relation to their fieldwork on Salafi beliefs, practices, life courses and world views. The contributions problematize the limits of the usual academic definitions of Salafism by confronting the conventional categories of quietist, political and jihadist Salafism with first-hand field data. Thereby, the authors show how categorial lines begin to blur and to shift when exposed to the ambiguous and dynamic characteristics that are inherent to virtual and real-life fieldwork with Salafis.

Ethical issues in qualitative research: challenges and options

Background: We have been conducting workshops on “Qualitative Methods in Health Research” since last 5 years for health professionals in India. Objective: To explore the concerns and suggestions of the participants during their learning of ethical issues in qualitative research in a workshop setting. Materials and Methods: We obtained responses in an interactive session on ethical issues in qualitative research from a group of newly trained participants in workshops conducted in the years 2011 (n = 13) and 2013 (n = 30). A summative manual content analysis was done to identify themes generated. The results were compiled by two authors in which one was trained in qualitative research and another was trained in ethics in biomedical research. The discussion was developed in consensus. Result: The ethical challenges in qualitative research that emerged were (1) ensuring confidentiality, (2) selecting a tool and an approach for studying sensitive topics, (3) developing a consent form for a flexible interview, (4) addressing risks, (5) ethical reviewing of qualitative research proposals, and (6) publishing qualitative research findings. Participants suggested the need for training of researchers and ethics committee members in qualitative research methods. Conclusion: The findings may help in developing instructional design for ethics education in qualitative research and stimulate the generation of separate guidelines for the conduct of qualitative research in the future, in our country.

Ethical issues in qualitative research: considering yourself. The importance of protecting researcher wellbeing during interviews: researchers’ experience

Ethical issues in qualitative research: considering yourself. The importance of protecting researcher wellbeing during interviews: researchers’ experience

Negotiating Responsibility for Navigating Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research: A Review of Miller, Birch, Mauthner, and Jessop’s (2012) Ethics in Qualitative Research, Second Edition

Ethics in Qualitative Research (Miller, Birch Mauthner, &amp; Jessop, 2012), now in its second edition, uses a feminist framework to present a variety of issues pertinent to qualitative researchers. Topics include traditional challenges for qualitative researchers (e.g., access to potential participants, informed consent, overlapping roles), as well as those that have garnered more attention in recent years, particularly with regard to uses and consequences of technological advances in research. The book is critical of committees whose function it is to review proposed research and grant research ethics approval (e.g., University Research Ethics Committees [URECs], Research Ethics Boards [REBs], and Institutional Review Boards [IRBs]). The authors of this book are situated within the United Kingdom. The editors take the position that ethics oversight by the researchers themselves is preferable and that such boards and committees are not well equipped to review qualitative research. A rebuttal to this position is presented within this review. Ethics in Qualitative Research provides a good overview of ethical issues that researchers face and is effective in merging theory with practice. It would be strengthened by avoiding the debate over URECs or by offering concrete suggestions for how URECs can improve their reviews of qualitative research.

Overview of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research methods are a robust tool for chaplaincy research questions. Similar to much of chaplaincy clinical care, qualitative research generally works with written texts, often transcriptions of individual interviews or focus group conversations and seeks to understand the meaning of experience in a study sample. This article describes three common methodologies: ethnography, grounded theory, and phenomenology. Issues to consider relating to the study sample, design, and analysis are discussed. Enhancing the validity of the data, as well reliability and ethical issues in qualitative research are described. Qualitative research is an accessible way for chaplains to contribute new knowledge about the sacred dimension of people's lived experience.

‘You're in Cruel England Now!’: Teaching Research Ethics through Reality Television

This article reports findings from a one-year research project funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Psychology Network. The research aimed to explore the use of ‘reality’ television in teaching research ethics to psychology undergraduates and this article reports on those findings that have particular relevance for qualitative research methods. Experience of teaching research ethics suggests that students can find the process of thinking through ethical issues in qualitative work quite challenging. Ethical issues in qualitative research can be subtly different from, or more complex than, those raised by quantitative studies, and yet most textbooks that deal with research ethics tend to focus on the latter. This article presents findings from a research project by the authors, which suggest that using familiar material such as TV programmes, and in particular ‘reality’ TV, can be effective in helping students address ethical issues in qualitative research. Fifteen second-year psychology undergraduates were shown an extract from an episode of Big Brother (Channel 4). They were then asked to discuss in small groups the ethical issues they felt it raised, and these discussions were audio-recorded. Subsequently, they were asked to apply their thinking to a research brief by discussing the ethical issues it raised, suggesting ideas for design and then writing a research proposal. This article reports findings from the first stage of the project. It presents evidence from the discussion groups indicating that the TV material had promoted an in-depth consideration of some ethical issues that can be challenging for students to address in relation to qualitative work, notably informed consent, confidentiality and risk of harm.

After cultural competency: research practice and moral experience in the study of brand pirates and tobacco farmers

This article explores the value of ethnographic methods in identifying and addressing ethical issues in qualitative research on stigmatized populations. Examples come from two anthropological projects carried out in populations where stigmatized and illicit activities are prevalent: tobacco farmers in the USA and brand pirates in Guatemala. In both cases preliminary ethnographic research proved essential to understanding potential ethical dilemmas and tailoring research practice to avoid stigmatization. Cultural competency is discussed as a useful concept for approaching ethical issues in the study of stigmatized populations, especially when complemented by ethnographic attention to moral experience, the values, meanings, and relationships that are at stake within a given population. Complicating the professional meaning and application of approaches to research ethics, including cultural competency, that privilege formal research techniques and formal ethical guidelines, our case studies describe ethnography as a process involving interpersonal skills, learning through participation, and situational ethics. Critical reflection on ethnography as process is relevant to debates about institutional review and research ethics and points to the need for enriched professional training and ethical reflection on the social skills amenable to effective and responsible field research.

Review of Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Introduction through Empirical Studies.

CONSTANCE T. FISCHER (Ed.) Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Introduction through Empirical Studies Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006, 512 pages (ISBN 0-12-088470-4, US$89.95 Hardcover) Reviewed by ANITA UNRUH This book is intended as an introductory textbook for psychology students and psychologists who have been trained in traditional psychological research methods with the goal of providing an orientation to qualitative research frameworks and how they are applied to the many research questions that might be considered by psychologists. The book begins with a useful introductory chapter by the editor that provides a historical overview of the emergence of psychology as a science concerned primarily with determining causal relationships. The editor then examines the origins of qualitative research and the contributions it can make as a post-modern epistemological perspective that is concerned with the meaning of psychological phenomena and the interrelationships of outcomes and circumstances of these phenomena. This discussion is followed by a review of practical matters pertaining to undertaking a qualitative thesis (or study). Some of this section includes standard advice for graduate students but a number of issues that are often particularly complex for qualitative researchers are considered by the editor (how much personal interest in the topic should be acknowledged by the researcher, the process of qualitative data collection and analysis, writing and publishing qualitative research, and, attending to ethical issues in qualitative research). This introduction is very helpful in setting qualitative methodologies within psychology both as a therapeutic profession, and as a scientific discipline, with a qualitative overview for the novice reader. There are 13 chapters in the body of the book and they are gathered into three parts. The five chapters in Clinical Practices make linkages between psychotherapy and the qualitative methods or analytical approaches of discourse analysis, grounded theory, and phenomenology. The five chapters in Affective and Cognitive Processes discuss feminist collaborative research, phenomenology, and dialogical approaches as applied to affective and cognitive issues. They include discussions about qualitative research concerned with sexual abuse, anger, joy, forgiveness, and thought processes. The three chapters in Life Situations examine intuitive inquiry, experiential method, and focus groups as qualitative methods to address, respectively, embodiment of contemporary female mystics, being a stranger in a foreign land, and HIV/AIDS interventions in Botswana. The authors of these chapters are respected qualitative researchers in psychology. Most come from the United States but several are from Canada or the United Kingdom. All of the chapters are written in the first person, in a narrative style. They tell a story about an author's approach to a particular psychological issue using qualitative method or analysis. The focus is primarily on method, processes, and analytical strategies though usually there is also some discussion about research findings particularly in chapters that are more focused on data analysis. The book ends with a Question and Responses chapter by the editor that covers many of the questions novice qualitative researchers often have about qualitative research. The last section is a detailed Glossary of terms that are significant in understanding qualitative research. Both of these sections clarify many of the questions that are often raised by graduate students and beginning qualitative researchers particularly if their background is in quantitative research methods. …

Ethics as social practice: debating ethics in qualitative research

Ethical issues have become increasingly impor tant in research involving human beings. It is fitting, there fore, that FQS devotes a debate focusing on issues that are concerned with the many layers of decision making when it comes to ethics in qualitative research. In this contribution, I use a personal context to formally introduce the ethics de bate. I extend an invitation to readers to contribute to this debate of ethical issues in qualitative research.

Tapping the Perspectives of Children

The unique ethical issues related to conducting research with children are insufficiently distinguished from issues in working with vulnerable groups, despite a shift to recognizing children as active in the research process. Qualitative researchers are challenged to consider complex ethical issues related to children and are obligated to protect their rights, freedoms, safety, and dignity. While some issues are similar to those in any research context, the nature of the researcher-participant relationship, and the unstructured nature of qualitative research methods, add a dimension of risk. This article examines ethical issues in qualitative research with children: (1) consent and assent; (2) the obligation to protect children from harm while respecting

Ethical issues in qualitative research on internet communities

The internet is the most comprehensive electronic archive of written material representing our world and peoples' opinions, concerns, and desires. Physicians who surf the internet for the first time are...

Ethical issues in qualitative research at the end of life

This article discusses some of the ethical issues associated with the use of qualitative research methods in two doctoral studies conducted by nurses in a department of palliative medicine. These issues are of particular relevance with the increasing emphasis on evidence-based practice in palliative care. Both studies used multiple methods of data collection within a case study design. Study one (Seymour, 1997), an ethnography of death and dying in two critical care units, used participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews to construct 14 detailed case studies. Each case consisted of the interactions and perceptions of those involved with a purposively selected series of critically ill individuals. Study two (Ingleton, 1997) was based on externally commissioned work and provided a longitudinal analysis of the evaluation of two palliative care services. Triangulated data from documentary analysis, structured and unstructured interviews, questionnaire surveys and observation were used. Specific ethical challenges which arose during the conduct of these studies are highlighted, showing how these were present at all stages of the research process. The article concludes by proposing a guide for the conduct of ethically responsible qualitative research.

Ethics in qualitative social research on marginalized groups

This paper discusses some ethical issues in qualitative research on marginalized groups, such as intellectually disabled women. These kinds of issues have been brought to the fore through contacts with intellectually disabled women in a recently conducted study. Intellectually disabled women have a particularly low status on account of their intellectual impairment as well as their gender. The principle aim of the paper is to emphasize the need for a continual discussion within the academic community as to the conduct of those engaging in qualitative research on marginalized groups. A self‐appointed alliance with such groups risks masking the superior position of the researcher. This has two serious consequences, i.e. it involves running the risk of poor interpretations of the data, as well as of “objectifying” the informants.

Ethical issues in qualitative research in palliative care.

Ethical issues in qualitative research in palliative care.

Ethical considerations in qualitative research with hospice patients.

As scientific and medical advances propel the world toward the 21st century, ethical concerns have become an integral part of health care. The protection of human rights is mandated in health care research. The increasing use of qualitative research methods, however, high-lights ethical issues and concerns related to the research process, and these take on new meaning in the context of qualitative research. This article addresses three ethical issues in qualitative research with hospice patients. Examples taken from a naturalistic nursing study of the hospice patient's perspective of empathy describe one researcher's experience with those ethical issues.