Statement
of ethical research practice
This page sets out ethical research
principles for the ‘Public Connection’ project. The principles adhere
to, and were partially adapted from, the guidelines for research of the
following organisations:
•
The British
Psychological Society
•
The British
Sociological Association
•
The Association of
Internet Researchers
Values
1)
The research team aim to safeguard the interests of those involved in or
affected by their work, to ensure that their methods of investigation are
appropriate, to report their findings accurately and truthfully, and to
consider the consequences of their work or its misuse for those they study
and other interested parties.
2)
Participants in this research shall
be treated as the subjects, rather than the objects of research, and their
rights shall be respected fully.
Research
practice
1)
Freely given written consent will be sought from all people participating
in the research who will be given written information, in non-technical
language, on what the research is about, who is undertaking it, why it is
being undertaken, how it will be communicated and how the data will be
stored and shared with other researchers. Furthermore, the researcher will
make clear to the participants that they can refuse to take part or
withdraw from the research at any point and that they may reject the use
of data-gathering devices, such as tape recorders.
2)
The privacy of those participating in the research will be respected; to
protect the participants further, all identifiers will be removed from the
data and pseudonyms will be used.
3)
Each interview will conclude with a careful debriefing during which the
researcher will discuss the experience of the interview with the
participants in order to monitor any unforeseen effects.
4)
Feedback on research findings will be provided to those people who
participated in the research as part of acknowledging their contribution
and seeking their views on outputs and dissemination.
5)
The data collected during the research will be stored at the London School
of Economics and Political Science in a secure manner with only the
Research Team having access to it and, after the completion of the project
and in accordance with the requirements of the funding agency (ESRC), will
be deposited in the ESRC Data Archive.
6) The research involves collaboration with the funding agency (ESRC). All reports will be shown to the funding agency in draft form, and any comments will be carefully considered in preparing the final version of such reports for publication. Such reports are likely to be the basis for publications for research purposes. The Research Team retains the responsibility for the final version of any such report or publication, and would normally retain copyright except where otherwise agreed.
22
December 2003
