[Air-l] Internet Research Ethics - recent conference

Tue Sep 14 00:32:36 PDT 2004

Dear AoIR-ists,

Partly as something of a status report on Internet research ethics, and
partly as a warm-up for the panel on ethics at AoIR 5.0 next week
(Wednesday, 10:30), I forward the following report, originally written for
and distributed to the AoIR ethics working committee this summer.
For those interested in these matters, I hope these comments will be useful.

==
"Understanding Internet Research Ethics" took place on June 17-19 in
Boulder, Colorado - sponsored and organized by the New Media Center of the
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado.  The
conference provided a three-day forum for more in-depth exploration of
contemporary issues in Internet Research Ethics, as originally inspired by
our discussions of ethical issues as part of the "New Research for New
Media: Innovative Research Methods Symposium" held in September 2003 at the
University of Minnesota. (See the conference website
<http://newmedia.colorado.edu/ethics/> for more details. In particular,
additional materials - including video of the final conference discussion -
should be available there soon. For the slides of my own presentation,
please see <www.drury.edu/ess/UIRE/UIRE.html>.)
    Special thanks goes especially to Bruce Henderson (University of
Colorado, Boulder) and Nora Paul (University of Minnesota) for their energy,
organizational skills, and wonderful hospitality.  They brought together a
group of researchers, ethicists, and other relevant specialists of
considerable experience and expertise; they fostered conversations, both
formal and informal, over the three days of the conference that proved to be
exceptionally insightful and productive.
    A central feature of the conference was the use of a discussion board
for posting cases and issues, followed by responses developed in small
groups.  These materials are available online: after going to the conference
website, click on the link for "Conference Schedule"; at the top of this
page, follow the "Link to Discussion Questions."
    In addition to the specific issues and our responses, I would commend to
your reading our general articulation of both the "Working Assumptions" that
became more explicit for us as the conference progressed, and the "Where
We've Gotten" list that seeks to summarize some of the more general insights
and points of emphasis that emerged as well.
    In particular, I would like to expand on some of the points made in
"Where We've Gotten."

"It is clear that many researchers are arriving at good ethical practices
through applying their own sense of ethics to new forms of research."
(CE: The point of this comment is at least three-fold.
One, it is consistent with the approaches towards ethics that have shaped
the AoIR guidelines - in general, a dialogical approach with roots in
Aristotle, Habermas, feminism, Bahktin, and others, that emphasizes that we
begin as members of a moral community (rather than as atomistic
individuals); as such, we generally develop a strong suite of moral
intuitions and judgments that generally serve us well in our daily lives -
and serve as the starting points for discussion of those ethical
difficulties that are not quickly and easily resolved.
This means in turn that while philosophical ethics can be helpful in our
exploration of the ethical issues that arise in the _praxis_ of research -
having a Ph.D. in ethics is _not_ required for insightful exploration and
effective resolution of the difficult ethical issues often encountered by
researchers.   [This is a good thing for me, because my Ph.D. is _not_ in
ethics either.... smile]  On the contrary, some of the most insightful and
reflective ethicists in this domain include scholars such as Elizabeth
Buchanan, whose home field is library science - but whose anthology
"Readings in Virtual Research Ethics: Issues and Controversies" is a
watershed publication for us.
This means in turn that researchers should not be tempted to neglect moral
issues just because they are not necessarily experts in ethics.  On the
contrary, ethical "expertise," as our conference made very clear, is a
matter of shared insights, honest debate about disagreements, and the
willingness to take responsibility for articulating and defending our
specific ethical judgments. )

"In research that involves relationships with those being researched, the
ethics involved in relationships in general will apply to how researchers
conduct their research."
(CE: As Annette Markham effectively reminded us, ethics cannot be separated
from methodology - and methodologies such as participant/observation that
incorporate humane relationships between researcher and the researched thus
further call into play the ethical guidelines and responsibilities of human
relationships, not just the basic guidelines and requirements of Human
Subjects Protection codes (emphasizing confidentiality, informed consent,
etc.).

"The second point above represents a perspective shared among several
different cultures and subcultures and therefore begins to point the way
towards possible broader cross-cultural ethical guidelines."
(CE: That is: the ontological/anthropological starting point that human
beings emerge as individuals from community first - _contra_ the modernist,
especially Hobbesian and Cartesian atomistic understanding of human beings
as isolated atoms first - is a view shared by a range of cultures and
subcultures, both "West" and "East."
Given that the Internet makes possible cross-cultural and intercultural
research - it would be useful to have a set of ethical guidelines for
Internet research that "work" beyond the cultural boundaries of a single
country or cultural domain.  This shared ontological/anthropological
starting point promises to be a crucial element for such an intercultural /
cross-cultural set of guidelines.)

"Context(s) are central to everything, including research purposes, research
questions, methods, ethics, interpretations, representations, and
researchers' understandings."
(CE: this is, I hope, delightfully self-explanatory.)

"A paradox of internet research: while we might want to approach it from a
more grounded, question-driven perspective, legal constraints impinge upon
us.
Moreover, uncertainty among IRB members has colored our thinking about
online research and what is possible.
What we're saying is that IRB members ought to be educated about online
research so that we are not artificially or unnecessarily restricted in what
we do." 

(CE: On the one hand, it was very gratifying to see that in various ways,
the AoIR ethical guidelines seem to "work" pretty well for resolving at
least some of the ethical issues encountered by researchers.  Further,
consistent with informal comments sent in to AoIR and the ethics committee,
the AoIR guidelines prove helpful in educating IRB members with regard to
the specific issues and challenges of Internet Research.  In this direction,
there is some sense that we're making progress.
On the other hand, however, it remains clear that at least some IRB members
tend to be overly restrictive in their review of Internet research because
of lack of understanding of the issues and details, and/or because of lack
of clarity as to how research ethics and legal requirements might (and might
not) apply to online research.
In short, there is still work to do.

The conference, finally, generated some initial plans for further
initiatives in Internet research ethics.  Stay tuned!
==

See ya soon!

Charles Ess
Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar
Universität Trier 
Fachbereich II
Fakultäten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie
Universitätsring 15
54296 Trier (Germany)
Office phone: (49) (0)651-201-3744
 Sekretariat: (49) (0)651-201-3203

Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave.              Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO  65802  USA       FAX: 417-873-7435

Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

Charles Ess
Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar
Universität Trier 
Fachbereich II
Fakultäten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie
Universitätsring 15
54296 Trier (Germany)
Office phone: (49) (0)651-201-3744
 Sekretariat: (49) (0)651-201-3203

Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave.              Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO  65802  USA       FAX: 417-873-7435

Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23