[Air-L] consent form for email exchanges

Jennifer Myers jennifer.b.myers at gmail.com
Wed Jan 11 07:29:41 PST 2012


I conducted my interviews using Skype (just audio as video wasn't
necessary) and recorded using Wiretap (no cloud) and my IRB allowed me to
send a consent form via email (how I was contacting the participants and it
was publicly available) and in the form it stated that if they replied with
their consent that would serve as their signature. I am at a R1 university
in the US and it would have been inconvenient for my participants
otherwise. Then again, I don't know the real names of my participants and
just their online identities and my research is low-risk and exempt. After
the letter where a signature would normally be it said, *You are consenting
to be a part of this study if you respond to this email and are willing to
participate in the interviews. Your interviews will be recorded and the
digital recordings will be kept until... Once they responded, I asked them
again if they were consenting and I saved all of the emails. I also asked
them during the interview so that I had a digital recording and in case
they had changed their minds. *

Janet's books are wonderful resources, and I highly recommend them if you
are conducting research online. They have been a lifesaver as I thought
through the many ethical issues I've encountered.

Jennifer

On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 11:52 PM, Janet Salmons, Ph.D.
<jesalmons at gmail.com>wrote:

> Elena,
>
> I would suggest that the content of your consent agreement, as well as its
> content, need to be re-thought for online interviews using email.
>
> Remember, consent agreements communicate to participants what they can
> expect from you, the researcher, and should inspire their trust in the
> safety and credibility of the study. For one thing, I would think it
> important to assure your participants of the privacy of your exchanges
> given the ease of forwarding email. Also, depending on the kind of program
> you are using, the email exchange may be stored on someone else's server,
> in the cloud. So I would think you would want to specify some practices
> such as saving the email to your hard drive and deleting the message on the
> server.
>
> Additionally-- is it possible that other information about the participant
> might be evident from the email service, such as in a profile, signature,
> links. Might that participant have a Twitter/Facebook/site/blog linked to
> the email?  Do you want the ability to use any of the data the participant
> may have posted? If so you may want to acknowledge it in the consent
> letter.
>
> I've created some materials about informed consent, as well as a Survey
> Monkey form a participant can fill out and return (you can use/adapt the
> questions if they fit your study). You can find them here:
> http://bit.ly/rHxVNn. I discuss consent and other ethical issues in depth
> in *Online Interviews in Real Time*, and one case uses email
> interviews in *Cases
> in Online Interview Research* (both from Sage.)
>
> I agree with Robert-- your IRB may have particular guidelines on email
> interviews. However, I have not encountered a case where IRBs allowed data
> to be collected from an interview without a separate consent letter, as he
> indicated. In some of these areas there are not standard procedures used
> everywhere and you have to decide. If you want to publish findings you may
> want to err on the more conservative side and obtain consent.
>
> As well, there are other rules about use of digital signatures-- in the US
> some states do not honor them. In that case you'll need to have a way to
> obtain an original signature.
>
> Finally, I have another question for you: if you have some exchanges that
> are in-person, synchronous and verbal, and some that are written and
> asynchronous, the data you collect will be quite different. How will you
> account for this difference in your research design, and in your analysis?
> Have you considered conducting the online interviews using
> videoconferencing or Skype, which would be more comparable to an in-person
> in that you can see the participant, the participant has to reply in the
> moment, you get the non-verbals in terms of emotion and timing, facial
> expressions etc.
>
> Hope this is helpful and all the best for a successful study.
> Janet
>
> Janet Salmons, PhD
> *Capella University School of Business and Technology and Vision2Lead, Inc.
> *Site- http://www.vision2lead.com
> Follow Twitter at #einterview
> Now available: Cases in Online Interview
> Research<http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235442>
> PO Box 943
> Boulder, CO 80306-0943
> jsalmons at vision2lead.com
>
>
> > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:11:19 -0500
> > From: Elena Razlogova <elena.razlogova at gmail.com>
> > To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> > Subject: [Air-L] consent form for email exchanges
> > Message-ID: <D339760A-27D4-4315-9A70-71E063C8E88A at gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >
> > Dear list members,
> >
> > What are the rules and practices on filling out consent forms for
> > interviews that are done online or over email?
> >
> > Most of the interviews I'm doing for my research will be conducted
> > in-person, with a standard consent form to sign. However, some of my
> > interviewees may be more comfortable with an email exchange rather than a
> > personal interview. In that case, instead of sending them the form to
> sign,
> > scan, and email me back, I would like to include the consent form in the
> > email together with my questions, for them to fill out and return by
> > hitting reply, but without the signature.
> >
> > Is that an accepted practice? What are the rules on this?
> >
> > Thank  you,
> > Elena
> >
> > Elena Razlogova
> > Concordia University, Montreal
> > http://elenarazlogova.org
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:18:26 -0600
> > From: "Peaslee, Robert" <robert.peaslee at ttu.edu>
> > To: Elena Razlogova <elena.razlogova at gmail.com>,
> >        "air-l at listserv.aoir.org"       <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Air-L] consent form for email exchanges
> > Message-ID: <CB31EA29.6B5F%robert.peaslee at ttu.edu>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > My guess is that there will be some variability on this based on the
> > predilections of your institutional review board. My practice up to now
> > has been your former option in order to keep the consent form separate
> > from the data. But lately my IRB has been eschewing consent forms
> > altogether for exempt research (research that poses no reasonable risk)
> in
> > order to further minimize the possibilities for identification of
> subjects.
> >
> > I'd check with your IRB coordinator and get some feedback there, since
> > you'll probably get a variety of answers here.
> >
> > Best,
> > Rob
> >
> > Robert Moses Peaslee, Ph.D.
> >
> > Assistant Professor, Dept of Electronic Media & Communication
> > College of Mass Communications
> > Texas Tech University
> >
> > robert.peaslee at ttu.edu
> > 806 742 6500, x283
> >
> >
> >
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