Researcher-participant Relationship Research Articles

Survey response rates: Trends and a validity assessment framework

Survey methodology has been and continues to be a pervasively used data-collection method in social science research. To better understand the state of the science, we first analyze response-rate information reported in 1014 surveys described in 703 articles from 17 journals from 2010 to 2020. Results showed a steady increase in average response rate from 48% in 2005 to 53% in 2010 to 56% in 2015 and 68% in 2020; a marked increase in the number of surveys per published article from 1.27 in 2015 to 1.79 in 2020; and that variables that predict response-rate fluctuations over time are related to research design (e.g. data-collection medium), participant motivation (e.g. incentives), and researcher motivation (i.e. number of surveys per article). Second, we propose complementary information on contemporary response-rate norms and benchmarks with a response-rate validity assessment framework to gather evidence on accuracy of inferences based on a particular response-rate level. Implementing this validation process involves gathering information on the researcher–participant relationship, participant qualifications and motivation, survey length and complexity, and cultural and national context. Future survey research should implement the validity assessment framework in addition to reporting the response-rate value to better indicate a sample’s quality, appropriateness, and representativeness.

“Could You Help Me Die?”: On the Ethics of Researcher-Participant Relationship and the Limitations of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is beneficial for researchers and society, and even for the participants themselves. Yet, end-of-life qualitative research also entails unique challenges given the sensitive topic and questions relayed to the participants, and the participants’ requests of the researchers. This paper was written following ethical issues that arose while conducting in-depth interviews with Israeli members of the Swiss Dignitas Organization in 2019. The interviews enabled participants to air their thoughts on assisted suicide and gather information about related plans that were not available to the public due to various issues. Yet, during these interviews, I also found myself dealing with significant ethical dilemmas that I had not previously encountered, such as participants asking me to lie for them, or accompany them to Switzerland to fulfil their wishes. While the interviews served as a safe environment in which the participants could air their thoughts on the topic, they led me to reexamine the ethical limitations of qualitative research and the researcher-participant relationship (within and outside the research context). By analyzing three of these interviews, I attempted to answer the following research question: What do the ethics of qualitative research entail with regards to researcher-participant boundaries, as established in sensitive situations and that involve vulnerable populations in end-of-life situations? The analysis was conducted in line with the ethical mindfulness framework and combined theoretical analysis of the literature. My analysis indicates that while qualitative research encourages the establishing of a researcher-participant relationship through trust and rapport – especially on sensitive topics that involve vulnerable populations – the researcher must also ensure both participant and researcher safety, by establishing and maintaining boundaries, even post-research. Introspective ethical inquiry, triggered by participants, requires the researcher to be vulnerable, potentially resulting in emotional discomfort. It also mandates re-engaging with the participants on ethical meanings that stem from this process.

Methodological and Ethical Considerations when Conducting Qualitative Interview Research With Healthcare Professionals: Reflections and Recommendations as a Result of a Pandemic

The impacts of healthcare professionals (HCPs) being research participants are often neglected. As professionals, they tend to be perceived as ‘immune’ to many negative effects of sharing their experiences. However, in the context of an ongoing global pandemic such as COVID-19, these assumptions can be clearly challenged. This article draws on researchers’ experiences of conducting single and longitudinal qualitative interviews with HCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe during 2020. Reflecting on the methodological and ethical implications of doing such research during a pandemic allows researchers to surface assumptions about and question categories of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘sensitivity’. We explore these categories in relation to three issues we have identified: (i) Blurred boundaries in researcher-participant relationships; (ii) Interviews as spaces to process experiences; and (iii) Motivations to conduct and participate in research. We demonstrate that qualitative interviews during a pandemic are embedded in sense-making processes for both the interviewer and participant, and as such may play an important role in coping and resilience. We therefore argue for ethically active research that critically engages with the concepts of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘sensitivity’, and underpinning assumptions, in context over time throughout the research process for current and future research with HCPs and other groups beyond pandemic situations. We thus aim to prepare researchers for managing these potential facets during the research process. We conclude with practical implications for managing emerging ethical tensions, methodological challenges and the wide-ranging possibilities and responsibilities for research with HCPs, urging researchers to consider the issues in advance.

The Sociological Confessional: A Reflexive Process in the Transformation From Face-To-Face to Online Interview

This aim of the article is to reflect on a new quality in the researcher-participant relationship caused by the transformation from a face-to-face to an online interview (on the Zoom platform during two first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic). It reports methodological learnings from autoethnography. The concept of an interaction order (Goffman) provides a theoretical lens through which the researcher-participant encounter is being analysed. The study is based on the reflections referring to 31 online in-depth interviews with women (mothers in an ‘empty nest’) conducted by a team of five female researchers. Online research was depicted in literature as an option of a second choice for conducting qualitative studies before 2020 and an online methodology as one in need to be tested. In order to provide the context of our methodological learnings, we will present an overview of our study. Our study consisted of 31 online in-depth interviews with women (mothers in an ‘empty nest’) and was conducted by a team of five female researchers. After having reflected on our experience from the field, called ‘the sociological confessional’, we claim that online interviews have potential to be the option of the first choice to conduct in-depth interviews. We do not see the lack of immediate presence in remote interviews as a setback. On the contrary, we believe that thanks to introducing practices of care about the participant, the revised methodology not only meets the criteria of the qualitative IDI standards, but diminishes emotion work ( Hochschild, 1983 ) on the part of the researcher as well. We find our ‘report from the field’ unique: (1) our study was not planned to be conducted online and (2) it has succeeded in gathering equivalent data during the first stage of the pandemic.

A Content Analysis of 100 Qualitative Health Research Articles to Examine Researcher-Participant Relationships and Implications for Data Sharing.

We conducted a qualitative content analysis of health science literature (N = 100) involving qualitative interviews or focus groups. Given recent data sharing mandates, our goal was to characterize the nature of relationships between the researchers and participants to inform ethical deliberations regarding qualitative data sharing and secondary analyses. Specifically, some researchers worry that data sharing might harm relationships, while others claim that data cannot be analyzed absent meaningful relationships with participants. We found little evidence of relationship building with participants. The majority of studies involve single encounters (95%), lasting less than 60 min (59%), with less than half of authors involved in primary data collection. Our findings suggest that relationships with participants might not pose a barrier to sharing some qualitative data collected in the health sciences and speak to the feasibility in principle of secondary analyses of these data.

Shifting Positionalities in a Time of COVID-19: The Transnational Public Health Doctor and Ethnographer.

Ethnographic research is characterised by in-person engagement with individuals and groups within a social setting, usually over an extended timeframe. These elements provide valuable insights which cannot be gained through other forms of research. In addition, such levels of involvement in “the field” create complex, shifting researcher-participant relationships which themselves shape the course of the project and its findings. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many research projects, but impacts on ethnographic research, with its emphasis on physical presence in the field and interpersonal relationships, reveals much about these key elements of our praxis.I discuss how the pandemic influenced the progress of an ethnographic research project, based in Malawi, including consideration of how, as lead for the project, my clinical/“public health” positionalities interacted with relationships in the village and the arrival of COVID-19 in Malawi. This account reveals shifting intersubjectivities of researchers and participants as the pandemic brought changes in the nature of the engagement, from ethnographic explorations into the roles of smoke in everyday life, through fieldwork suspension, and contextualised COVID-19 response. These experiences demonstrate how a basis of reflexive ethnographic engagement with communities can underpin thoughtful responses to upcoming challenges, with implications for future “global health” work, both within and beyond the pandemic context.

Embodying Difference: Introducing ‘Contact Movement’ as an Ethnographic Method

This contribution to the special issue advances an ethnographic method which directs the critical project of re-imagining diversity towards studies of how difference emerges in fieldwork encounters. Drawing on my experiences of researching without eyesight, I urge students and teachers of anthropology to acknowledge the value of embodied research methods for examining social and corporeal differences in researcher-participant relationships. Firstly, I call attention to moments when embodied fieldwork may be resisted and how these are expressed as naturalised differences between researchers and participants. To deconstruct such naturalisations, I devise contact movement as a method which allows researchers to embody how these ethnographic tensions, or indeed differences, are negotiated between researchers and their participants. Ultimately, contact movement eagerly re-imagines diversity through a methodological rethink that permits ethnographers to embody and explore the collaborative production of difference in their intersubjective relationships, within the field and beyond.

The interpersonal processes of non-suicidal self-injury: A systematic review and meta-synthesis.

Understanding the processes underlying non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is important given the negative consequences of this behaviour. Qualitative research has the potential to provide an in-depth exploration of this. There has been limited research regarding the interpersonal processes associated with NSSI; therefore, a meta-synthesis was conducted to investigate this. A search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and CINAHL electronic databases from date of inception to November 2020 was conducted. In total, 30 papers were included in the final review. A meta-ethnographic approach was utilized to synthesize the data. Two overarching themes were found. Within 'Powerful relational dynamics', NSSI was cited as a response to participants becoming stuck in aversive or disempowering relational positions with others. Within the 'Taking matters into their own hands' subtheme, NSSI was reported as a way for participants to get interpersonal and emotional needs met. Several included papers did not comment on the researcher-participant relationship, which may have affected qualitative results. A small number of potentially eligible papers were unavailable for synthesizing. Findings provide a more nuanced investigation of the interpersonal processes underlying NSSI. Consistent with relevant theories, NSSI appears to be a way of mitigating difficult interpersonal experiences or getting interpersonal needs met. NSSI may be engaged in as a substitute to other, less damaging ways to cope. An argument is made for a more empathetic understanding of NSSI and the use of relational interventions. Self-injury may occur in response to interpersonal stressors Self-injury can be a means to get interpersonal needs met Self-injury may replace other means of coping that become blocked or thwarted Emotional distress can be closely linked with interpersonal factors for this group Relational therapies may be beneficial where interpersonal processes are linked to NSSI.

Methodological concerns in online translation community research: a reflexive netnography on translator’s communal habitus

ABSTRACT This article attempts to integrate Kozinets’ netnography and Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology as a promising methodology to study the communal habitus of online translation community Fixsub. We closely examine the methodological issues encountered and orientates to address the three interrelated questions: How should a researcher posit his/her scholarly position in an online translation community? How is a researcher–participant relationship built within the virtual settings? How does a researcher balance the traditional dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity during his/her online participation? We conclude that an online translation community research requires the researcher to have an ongoing immersion within the fieldsite, as well as in a state of participant objectivation to assess his/her own positionality in relation to the object of research and negotiate the mutual shaping between a participant and researcher.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

Ethical dilemmas embedded in performing fieldwork with nurses in the ICU.

Background:Background: In general, qualitative research design often involves merging together various data collection strategies, and researcher’s may need to be prepared to spend longer periods in the field to pursue data collection opportunities that were not foreseen. Furthermore, nurse researchers performing qualitative research among patients and their relatives often experience unforeseen ethical dilemmas.Aim:This paper aimed to explore aspects of ethical dilemmas related to qualitative nursing research among patients and their relatives in the intensive care unit (ICU).Research design:This paper is based on a qualitative researcher’s personal experience during a hermeneutic phenomenological study involving close observation and in-depth interviews with 11 intensive care nurses. Data were collected at two ICUs in two Norwegian university hospitals.Ethical considerations:The study was approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD). The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK) granted dispensation to the project regarding health personnels confidentiality of the patients who were present during the observation (2012/622-4).Findings:Close observation with nurses in the ICU requires the researcher to balance being a qualitative researcher, an ICU nurse and a sensitive fellow human being open to the suffering of the other—that is, being embodied, engaged and affected by sensitive situations and simultaneously constantly stepping back and reflecting on the meaning of those situations.Conclusions:The qualitative researcher’s ethical awareness also entails knowing and acknowledging his or her own vulnerability, which becomes apparent in the researcher-participant relationship and settings in which being a fellow human always overrules the researcher’s role in ethical dilemmas.

Exiting fieldwork “with grace”: reflections on the unintended consequences of participant observation and researcher-participant relationships

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodological importance of how researchers exit fieldwork to draw attention to implications for participant and researcher well-being.Design/methodology/approachReflecting in detail on one researcher’s final six-months exiting fieldwork at a retirement village, this paper critically examines the unintended consequences of participant observation and researcher-participant relationships.FindingsThe paper illustrates that difficulties to exit fieldwork can be unintended consequences of participant observation activities and developing researcher-participant relationships. The findings also discuss how fieldwork exit can impose upon participant and researcher well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are built upon fieldwork at a retirement village where the researcher served as a volunteer. Thus, the discussion focusses on participant observation activities that are likely to lead to close researcher-participant relationships. However, this paper aims to serve as a useful resource for researchers when considering how to exit their unique fieldwork contexts “with grace”.Practical implicationsThe paper provides practical suggestions to help marketing researchers such as ethnographers, manage fieldwork exits with participant and researcher well-being concerns in mind.Social implicationsThe practical suggestions provided by this paper aim to enable marketing researchers to exit fieldwork contexts “with grace” through reflection and proactive management of the social impacts of their research activities.Originality/valueEven though researchers acknowledge fieldwork is social and personal by nature, little research attention has been paid to the management of researcher-participant relationships and the exit stage of fieldwork. This paper discusses and addresses this blind-spot in marketing research.

Q Sorting with Non-Reading Participants: Some Effective Adaptations to the Q-Methodological Workflow

As a participatory method combining qualitative and quantitative aspects, Q methodology has proven effective in academic as well as “practice- based” research and can be especially valuable in work with Indigenous groups and people who are in weak power positions. However, non-reading populations have often been excluded because procedures for sorting written statements often disqualified them. In cooperation with a Maasai research assistant and research participants in Northern Tanzania, I engaged in an approach through which participants who do not read rank ordered 42 written statements relative to each other, showing remarkable consistency when asked control questions. Thus, their perspectives regarding abstract concepts were made explicit and comparable to each other and to those who are literate. I discuss the involved extensions to the regular Q-sorting process, which can help researchers to acquire systematic insights into the worldviews of individuals or groups who are not proficient in reading. The approach in which they are embedded is valuable more widely when dealing with cultural and power disparities in Q research, underlining the importance of empathic and trusting researcher-participant relationships in a time when Covid-19 and calls for cognitive justice are impacting research designs.

Implementing longitudinal integrated curricula: Systematic review of barriers and facilitators.

The increase of longitudinal integrated curricula in medical schools worldwide represents the shift towards an outcome-oriented education. This novel model allows comprehensive student-patient interactions over time and integrates the educational content across disciplines. According to quantitative research, students, patients, doctors and communities benefit from this educational model in terms of participant satisfaction, learning outcomes and clinician recruitment. However, quantitative research does not provide detailed information on programme implementation processes. Therefore, this review aims to summarise facilitators and barriers of programme implementation reported in qualitative and mixed methods studies. The authors reviewed the literature about facilitators and barriers for the implementation of longitudinal integrated curricula in undergraduate medical education programmes. The systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO on 2 December 2019. The authors used the CASP checklist for qualitative research for the critical appraisal and summarised the results across studies using thematic content analysis. The authors screened 1682 reports. Twenty studies examining 17 different curricula met the inclusion criteria. Most curricula were implemented in the United States (n=6/17), Australia (n=5/17) or Canada (n=4/17). Programme implementation is facilitated and hampered by its educational components (eg continuity of supervision, safe learning environments), organisational structures (eg community involvement) and participating students' and staff' motivation and personality. The critical appraisal revealed that several studies lacked transparent documentation and adequate reflection on the researcher-participant relationship (n=20/20), data collection instruments (n=12/20) and recruitment strategy (n=4/20). The authors derived practical recommendations for the implementation of undergraduate, patient-centred, integrated medical curricula. Programme managers need to define and communicate common objectives with all participants. They should clarify the implementation of the objectives in all processes in a transparent and structured manner. Considering reporting guidelines, future studies in this field should document more transparently the methods used to gain qualitative insights and the researchers' personal involvement.

Les attentes dans la relation d’enquête. Ce qu’elles nous apprennent sur l’objet d’étude

Ce texte propose une réflexion sur la relation d’enquête, issue d’un travail de terrain avec des femmes enceintes rencontrant des difficultés pour se loger. Le suivi ethnographique de ces femmes, réalisé dans la région Île-de-France, a consisté en un accompagnement étroit, parfois aussi de leurs conjoints, durant leurs grossesses et au-delà. Cette méthode a permis d’étudier, de façon longitudinale, les mises à l’épreuve d’une prise en charge médicale qui se veut universelle. Le présent texte porte sur leur consentement, voire leur motivation, à participer à cette démarche ethnographique. Au cours de l’enquête, les attentes des femmes suivies ont pris un sens distinct selon le contexte de leur grossesse et les rôles qu’elles ont attribués à l’ethnographe. Les raisons pour lesquelles ces femmes participent à l’étude suggèrent une privation, quelle que soit sa nature, que la relation d’enquête viendrait combler. On découvre que les attentes des enquêtées constituent une source non négligeable pour la compréhension de la problématique étudiée.

Participant compensation in global health research: a case study.

BackgroundCompensation for research participants can be provided for reasons including reimbursement of costs; compensation for time lost, discomfort or inconvenience; or expression of appreciation for participation. This compensation involves numerous ethical complexities, at times entailing competing risks. In the context of transnational research, often incorporating contexts of economic inequality, power differentials and post-colonialism, these issues extend into wider questions of ethical research conduct.MethodsWe describe experiences of conducting a community-based study of air pollution in southern Malawi incorporating ethnographic, participatory and air quality monitoring elements. Decisions surrounding participant compensation evolved in response to changing circumstances in the field.ResultsAttention to careful researcher–participant relationships and responsiveness to community perspectives allowed dynamic, contextualised decision-making around participant compensation. Despite widely cited risks, including but not restricted to undue influence of monetary compensation on participation, we learned that failure to adequately recognise and compensate participants has its own risks, notably the possibility of ‘ethics dumping’.ConclusionsWe recommend active engagement with research participants and communities with integration of contextual insights throughout, including participant compensation, as for all elements of research conduct. Equitable research relationships encompass four central values: fairness, care, honesty and respect.

Working the hyphens in contemporary China: reconsidering researcher-participant relationship in an authoritarian state

This article explores the methodological and ethical challenges of doing qualitative fieldwork in an authoritarian state. Drawing on a long-term project conducted in China, I discuss how my interaction with the participants was mediated by the pervasive state power. This phenomenon adds a new layer to the question “can the subaltern speak,” and calls for a refined understanding of the researcher-participant relationship. Borrowing insights from recent anthropological studies on the state and Abrams’s state effect theory, I propose to move away from a static, western centric, and territory-based conceptualization of the state, and treat it as a culturally and historically specific structuration, in which researchers and participants are engaged. In this way, researchers can intentionally work against the normalizing state power yet still work with their participants. This approach leads to a more deliberate understanding of the methodological and ethical responsibilities of researchers in the process of structuration.

Informed consent to clinical research in India: A private law remedy

There is a well-established common law doctrine for ascertaining information disclosure in informed consent claims within the treatment context that governs the doctor–patient relationship. But there is no such doctrine in clinical research governing the researcher–participant relationship in India. India, however, is not exceptional in this regard. Common law countries like the United States and Canada at most have sparse, non-systematised, criteria for such cases; arguably, a doctrine for research is at its nascent stage. But the adequacy of the existing criteria for settling informed consent claims in research has hardly ever been discussed. Furthermore, a specific discussion on the applicability of this ‘nascent doctrine’ to India is non-existent. This article discusses both. The article examines case law from India and other common law jurisdictions that hint at developments in this area. It suggests that Indian courts need to move abreast with other jurisdictions to better protect India’s patients and research participants.

Person-oriented ethics for autism research: Creating best practices through engagement with autism and autistic communities.

Research ethics means issues that concern the welfare and wellbeing of people who take part in research. It is important in all scientific studies. Ethics helps people who do research treat people who take part in research fairly and with respect. This article is about day-to-day ethics when autistic people take part in research. We present tips for researchers who want to do this type of study.We used two methods to create these tips. First, we wanted to know what other people said about this topic. We used a literature review to find out. Second, we wanted to know what autistic people, parents, and professionals thought, and had a working group meet to discuss it. The working group provided advice that researchers could consider around day-to-day ethics in research. This article talks about these methods and advice. The advice fits into five big groups:Tailor the research process for the unique needs of each person.Think about the world in which people who take part in research live.Make it easier for people to make their own choices.Value what people who take part in research have to share and consider their needs and strengths.Think about how researchers and people who take part in research work together.This project shows why it is useful for researchers and communities to talk about research ethics together.

“Listen and Let It Flow”: A Researcher and Participant Reflect on the Qualitative Research Experience

Ethnographic research involves prolonged and often personal interaction between the researcher and research participants. This paper is a collaboration between a social work researcher and a research participant who became acquainted through the researcher’s ethnographic fieldwork for her dissertation. Despite differing in numerous and significant ways, not the least of which are age, class, education, and race, the two women developed a quasi-friendship after the researcher exited the field–a time when many researcher-participant relationships wane or terminate entirely. The two recorded and transcribed a series of informal conversations wherein they reflected on their experiences in the research process. Of particular salience is the research participant’s perspective of the immaterial benefits she experienced through her participation in the research and her perception of the qualities of a “good” qualitative researcher: one who approaches listening as a practice and cultivates relationships with participants slowly and naturally. The authors’ reflections indicate that participants may be able to offer valuable feedback on the research experience, and researchers might use participants’ unique perspectives to alter their research approach and/or techniques.