[Air-l] consent for asynchronous qualitative email interviews withinternational participants

[Monica Barratt]

Dear Catherine,

I recommend you read the following reference:

Roberts, L., & Indermaur, D. (2003, 24-25 March). Signed consent forms in
criminological research: Protection for researchers and ethics committees
but a threat to research participants? Paper presented at the Evaluation in
Crime and Justice: Trends and Methods Conference, Canberra. Retrieved 4
April 2006, from http://aic.gov.au/conferences/evaluation/roberts.pdf

In my research field (illicit drug use research), it is standard practice
not to obtain signatures from participants as this may compromise their
anonymity in the case of subpoena.

You are conducting email interviews so clearly it is more convenient to
obtain 'electronic' consent. In my project, I have a short consent script
that I will exchange with interviewees which reads:

I have read the explanation of this study and agree to participate. I
understand that my participation in this study is entirely voluntary.

Username or first name: (eg. JoeBloggs83 or just Joe)

Date:
Obviously this happens after they have looked over the participant
information and we have discussed any concerns they may have.

I hope this is useful for you. Good luck!


Monica Barratt
PhD Student
National Drug Research Institute
AUSTRALIA

On 10/04/07, Kristin R. Wolfe <wolfek857 at duq.edu> wrote:
>
> I believe that an email interview may not get past the ethics review
> because the name of the participant would be tied to the email. However,
> you may be able to set up a "blind" online survey that would allow you to
> collect the data. Also, this "blind" survey would allow you to get more
> accurate, i.e. less likely to "fudge" information because their name is
> tied to it. In order to insure that only those invited to participate do
> so, and that they only respond once, you could send each participant a
> code which would be entered at the beginning of the survey. It would not
> be able to be re-entered at any point in time, once the survey was
> submitted, and should allow you more honest research.
> --
> Kristin Roeschenthaler Wolfe
> Adjunct Professor
> Duquesne University
>
> > I am a PhD candidate and I am preparing for my ethics application to
> > conduct
> > interviews by email in the area of women's sexual health (ie 'sensitive'
> > topic). From the literature there seem to be a variety of acceptable
> > options
> > with regard to consent, from tacit agreement inherent in the decision to
> > participate through to a variety of procedures to obtain some form of
> > consent documentation. As I am interviewing an international rather than
> > local group of participants, obtaining a hard copy by post or fax is
> > problematic in terms of reimbursement of participants and in terms of
> > dissuading people from this extra step in participation. I would be very
> > appreciative if anyone could update me on practices that are currently
> > deemed acceptable. The main text I am working from in terms of ethics is
> > Mann & Stewart 2000 'Internet communication and qualitative research: A
> > handbook for researching online.'
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Catherine Cook
> >
> >
> >
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