Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 651.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Patricia Galloway <galloway@gslis.utexas.edu> (34)
Subject: Re: 14.0646 ethical research procedures?
[2] From: Charles Ess <cmess@drury.edu> (21)
Subject: Re: 14.0646 ethical research procedures?
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 07:29:46 +0000
From: Patricia Galloway <galloway@gslis.utexas.edu>
Subject: Re: 14.0646 ethical research procedures?
There are two issues here, both of which social science researchers and
oral history specialists have been encountering and assimilating as part
of normal research concerns for some time now. The first is the "human
subjects" protocol, with which most schools (and most granting agencies)
require compliance from any discipline making use of human beings as the
objects of research (not only medical procedures but interviews as
well): the object originally (in the wake of medical scandals of the
1970s) was to protect research subjects from being lied to about their
situation and from the release of compromising information given in the
expectation of privacy. The second, which can also be construed in the
context of human subjects protocols (as apparently here) but is more and
more frequently being dealt with through contractual agreements, is the
requirement that most schools' grant offices now have that projects deal
according to university policies with intellectual property issues: the
object is to deal legally with the intellectual property that research
subjects may have in the information gathered from them (and that
includes DNA as well as poems). These two legal concerns conflict in
interesting ways, but both are designed to protect people being studied
in some way from all too frequent abuses based upon knowledge
differentials between the academics doing the studies and the people
being studied, and to protect the university from the latter finding out
and suing. You may think it sounds strange to ask the researcher to
rephrase the proposal, but the purpose is that it should be
understandable to those who will be studied, because they have to sign
the agreement. It is an interesting exercise, even if you don't have to
do it: would the people you are studying cooperate if they really knew
what you would be doing, and they had the right not to? And how would
they feel about providing you with the intellectual capital you need to
publish, make tenure, etc., without ever seeing what you wrote about
them or participating in any real capital that research result might
yield, if they found out?
Pat Galloway
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Texas-Austin
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 07:30:44 +0000
From: Charles Ess <cmess@drury.edu>
Subject: Re: 14.0646 ethical research procedures?
Charles and fellow/sister Humanists:
I don't know about similar projects per se - but the strictures on guarding
the confidentiality of the interviewees look to be right in line with the
guidelines I am struggling to become familiar with as part of an ethics
working committee organized by the Association of Internet Researchers,
prompted in part by researchers' unhappy reactions to new guidelines
proposed last year: see "Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects
Research on the Internet," by Mark S. Frankel and Sanyin Siang, Scientific
Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program, Directorate of Science and Policy
Programs, American Association for the Advancement of Science, available
online:
www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/projects/intres/main.htm
Hope that helps.
Charles Ess
Chair, Philosophy and Religion Department
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435
Home page: http://www.drury.edu/Departments/phil-relg/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC 2000: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac00/
"Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos. Persons appear by
entering into relation to other persons." -- Martin Buber, _I and Thou_
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