How To Conduct Ethical Research In The Digital Environment

Importance of ethical considerations in research

Question:

How to conduct Ethical Research.

While conducting research, researchers have to be concerned with the well-being of their audience or subjects whose feedbacks outline a major component of the results observed. In fact, researchers have to be aware that the process is more than collecting information and analysing it, they must also cater for the dignity, safety, rights and overall wellbeing of the participants. Now, research will always target a specific group of people or conditions which will always outline a unique set of considerations (Stuart & Barnes, 2005). For one, in any environment e.g. ICT, users will always be biased to their opinions and objectives. Therefore, the researcher might decide to conduct their own private investigations to attain trustworthy information. However, in doing so, their ethical conduct should come in play. In most cases, they will be given extensive control and access by an organisation which clearly tests their moral standards. This report highlights research and how they can be ethically conducted more so, in the digital environment so as to yield conclusive and trustworthy results.

Although the ethical concerns or issues outlined in this report transcend all fields in life a modern and technological aspect is considered where research conducted through the digital medium is evaluated. Now, several ethical issues are set to arise during a research, for one, the consent to information will be a major concern. In essence, users must agree to partake in the research itself while they are in their right mind and while they are not being manipulated (Trochim, 2006). Therefore, the ethical issue of intellectual property arises which outlines the importance of informed consents. Secondly, there is the privacy of the users and the information concerned. In most cases, the data or information outlined is confidential in nature and thus should be guided and only revealed to others when the owner’s give consent. Finally, the security of the information outlined in the research will arise as some of it may hold sensitive details that may affect the legitimate owner (Fouka & Mantzorou, 2017).

Legally, informed consent is a right that can be exercised by anybody based on the legal stipulations given by most legal stipulations seen today. In it, the participants of a research should be informed of all the actions and evaluations that concern their privately owned assets, this includes basic items such as name, age and any other information provided (Buchanan & Zimmer, 2016). In today’s world, informed consent is outlined as an ethical issue during research when one considers the environments used to conduct the said studies. Consider the internet, which today is the biggest source of information and is regularly used to conduct research.

Other than clicking and viewing items online viewers will inherently create their own intellectual property either by establishing accounts or by generating digital avatars that facilitate their operations. Therefore, anybody who creates these avatars or provides any form of confidential information online creates a privately owned property that requires consent if it's used in other third party activities. The same outcome applies to users who post picture and videos. However, as a result of legal outcomes, online companies will nullify the legal rights owned by individual users through the service agreement they provide. Therefore, it falls to the ethics and moral standards of the researcher to follow due diligence to obtain the consent of the property owners, not as a legal requirement but as an ethical consideration. However, this outcome is rarely seen because of the diverse nature of the internet which spans multiple spaces including different cultures (Heidi, McKee & Porter, 2017). Moreover, the researcher will use data sourced from other research that initially failed to get consent thus escalates the ethical problem to subsequent results.

Ethical issues in research conduct

Based on its definition, research should be conducted in a manner that protects the confidentiality of the participants. Privacy, on the other hand, outlines the state of anonymity and seclusion from the public eye. In essence, a person should be able to choose the exposure they get in any aspect of life. Therefore, while conducting research, an act that publicly outlines findings and results, the participants should have control over what is exposed. However, borrowing from the same context seen earlier where the digital world has influenced the availability and distribution of information, the boundaries of confidentiality and privacy are blurred. For one, consider the information stored by organisations today where users from employees to customers will provide information willingly to organisations as a show of trust. Similar outcomes are seen on the internet where users will even participate in surveys using their actual information (Extension, 2017).

Now, skip to an independent researcher who sources information from these environments. What stipulations are there to protect the information provided by users who provide it, whether willingly or unwillingly? A good example of this outcome is social media where one can easily obtain opinions and research inputs from participants. While acquiring this information, the researchers should be bound by the codes of conduct where the confidentially of the participants should be maintained. However, due to the social outcomes and norms that are seen today this consideration is never seen due factors such as sharing and enhanced connectivity (Deguzman, 2017).

Researchers in their duties will inherently ask their participants to trust them with the information they provide. Therefore, the security of the content provided lie with the researcher who in this case has absolute control of the assets at hand. It thus an unethical outcome if the person involved undertakes activities or operations that expose the research material to harm. For instance, storing the results of a study in a publicly accessed system that has minimal security features (Mateti, 2017). Moreover, security as an ethical consideration in research is outlined when ones consider the security threats facing modern systems where hacking and intrusions are a common outcome. While the researcher may follow all ethical considerations to safeguard the data obtained, intruders will have zero ethical considerations which expose the sensitive data owned by willing participants.

In the past, the ethical considerations were simple to outline, where in terms of information consent, participants were adequately informed to meet their individual needs and right requirements. However, with the introduction of the digital world, these considerations have become complex. For instance, internet research has to contend with issues of privately and publicly accessed data as their consent may vary from face to face approvals. Furthermore, consider the cases of copyrights issues and plagiarism outcome where researchers will illegally use other people’s information/work without their approval or recognition. In light of these considerations ICT, experts suggest the adoption of new regulations to govern the discipline more so when online data is subject to research (Popescul & Georgescu, 2013).

Informed consent in research

On the other hand, the privacy issues are as a result of the large volumes of data available today. This outcome again is facilitated by technology which through information technology has increased global connectivity. Researchers, therefore, have an abundance of information which they can readily store and manipulate based on their requirements. These outcomes outline the privacy concerns where the resource highlighted in the research may over expose the users or owners. Security of the same participants is also affected by the availability of information where researchers may over expose the participants involved which may cause harm to the people involved. Therefore, to protect the people involved two standards can be followed, apply confidentiality where researchers restrict access to information to the verified and concerned parties. Two, anonymity where participants are availed as anonymous individuals to protect their confidentiality. (Vatican, 2002). Similar solutions should be used for any data sourced from public sources as the rightful owners may lack the capacity to give access consents.

Conclusion

Research like other aspects of life is dynamic and versatile which outlines its complexity more so when dealing with ethical considerations. Therefore, in spite of the ethical standards used, there are instances when research will collide with the rights and ethical concerns of the participants. This outcome is further intensified by information technology (IT) which increases the factors to consider as a result of its extended environment. For one, data ownership is still a contentious issue in the digital realm as content is easily distributed which makes it difficult to trace the original users/developers. Furthermore, the availability of information makes it difficult to outline the privacy and security considerations of research. Therefore, to conduct an ethical research, one needs to follow a self-regulatory model where the concerns for others and their properties is observed. Moreover, as a regulatory procedure, most organisations and institutions should develop evaluation panels that review researchers based on their ethical implications and considerations. 

References

Buchanan. E & Zimmer. M. (2016). Internet Research Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-internet-research/

Deguzman. V. (2017). Computer Security Ethics and Privacy. Retrieved 24 May, 2017: https://www.webreference.com/internet/security/index.html

Extension. (2017). Internet Legal and Ethical Issues. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://articles.extension.org/pages/62093/internet-legal-and-ethical-issues

Fouka. G & Mantzorou. M. (2017). What are the major ethical issues in conducting research? is there a conflict between the research ethics and the nature of nursing? Health Science Journal. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://www.hsj.gr/medicine/what-are-the-major-ethical-issues-in-conducting-research-is-there-a-conflict-between-the-research-ethics-and-the-nature-of-nursing.php?aid=3485

Mateti. P. (2017). Ethics in Internet Security. Retrieved 24 May, 2017: https://cecs.wright.edu/~pmateti/InternetSecurity/Lectures/Ethics

McKee. H & Porter. J. (2017). The Ethics of Internet Research: A Rhetorical, Case-based Process. Google books. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=HZGlmDQA4fUC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=intellectual+property+as+an+ethical+issue+in+internet+research&source=bl&ots=-8a8cLNXoQ&sig=hg0zdyx0S23WApQggfD2SQFD8rA&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=intellectual%20property%20as%20an%20ethical%20issue%20in%20internet%20research&f=false

Popescul. D & Georgescu. M. (2013). Internet of things – some ethical issues. The USV annals of economics and public administration. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://seap.usv.ro/annals/ojs/index.php/annals/article/viewFile/628/599

Stuart. J & Barnes J. (2005). Conducting ethical research. National evaluation of sure start. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://www.ness.bbk.ac.uk/support/GuidanceReports/documents/165.pdf

Trochim. W. (2006). Ethics in research. Research methods knowledge base. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ethics.php

Vatican. (2002). Ethics in internet. Pontifical council for social communication. Retrieved 24 May, 2017, from: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html