[Air-L] Kefuffle researching fanfic/fandom

[Sarah Merry]

They've washed their hands of him, apparently - told him not to use his BU
alumnus email or mention them in relation to the research.  His only
connection was as a recent graduate.

He has also deleted all entries in his LiveJournal, which was set up to
manage and discuss the research, and the link to the survey from his page
now defaults to Google.

It's being referred to as SurveyFail, and that pretty much sums it up.

Sarah Merry

2009/9/3 Rhiannon Bury <rcbury at rogers.com>

> Wow! If this is indeed true, I hope this cowboy "researcher" was
>  disciplined by BU.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Katy E. Pearce <kpearce at umail.ucsb.edu>
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Sent: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 5:38:33 PM
> Subject: [Air-L] Kefuffle researching fanfic/fandom
>
> A case study of what not to do when trying to research Internet-based
> phenomena/groups?
>
> For those of you not on LiveJournal academics_anon, here's the summary,
> quoted from the community post:
>
> "A researcher affiliated with Boston University named Ogi Ogas decided to
> do
> a survey of various LiveJournal fanfiction/fandom groups. Unfortunately:
> 1. Despite repeatedly mentioning his association with BU, it appears he
> never got IRB approval.
> 2. This research wasn't even for a project at BU; it was for a privately
> published book. (A book titled, incidentally, Rule 34: What Netporn Teaches
> Us About The Brain. I am not making this up.)
> 3. Because of the subject, the survey was quite explicit in some parts (and
> flat-out triggering in others). Yet it was posted to all-ages communities
> with nothing even resembling a warning.
> 4. After criticism of a number of the questions (on counts ranging from
> cisgender and heterosexual privilege to just plain squick), the researcher
> actually changed the survey while data was still actively being collected.
> 5. Edited to add: Oh yeah, and some of the questions had to do with illegal
> drugs and sexual activity, despite there being no privacy statement or
> anything else of the sort."
>
> Summaries of the drama:
> http://viv.id.au/blog/20090831.6431/ten-steps-to-a-perfect-fanstorm/
> http://linkspam.dreamwidth.org/5800.html
>
> And the questionnaire itself:
> http://ljgeoff.livejournal.com/296228.html
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>