Elizabeth A. Buchanan

Online survey tools: ethical and methodological concerns of human research ethics committees.

A survey of 750 university human Research Ethics Boards (HRECs) in the United States revealed that Internet research protocols involving online or Web surveys are the type most often reviewed (94% of respondents), indicating the growing prevalence of this methodology for academic research. Respondents indicated that the electronic and online nature of these survey data challenges traditional research ethics principles such as consent, risk, privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, and autonomy, and adds new methodological complexities surrounding data storage, security, sampling, and survey design. Interesting discrepancies surfaced among respondents regarding strengths and weaknesses within extant guidelines, which are highlighted throughout the paper. The paper concludes with considerations and suggestions towards consistent protocol review of online surveys to ensure appropriate human subjects protections in the face of emergent electronic tools and methodologies.

Internet research ethics and the institutional review board: current practices and issues

The Internet has been used as a place for and site of an array of research activities. From online ethnographies to public data sets and online surveys, researchers and research regulators have struggled with an array of ethical issues around the conduct of online research. This paper presents a discussion and findings from Buchanan and Esss study on US-based institutional review boards and the state of internet research ethics.

Computer Science Security Research and Human Subjects: Emerging Considerations for Research Ethics Boards

This paper explores the growing concerns with computer science research, and in particular, computer security research and its relationship with the committees that review human subjects research. It offers cases that review boards are likely to confront, and provides a context for appropriate consideration of such research, as issues of bots, clouds, and worms enter the discourse of human subjects review.

A systematic study of Web-based and traditional instruction in an MLIS program : Success factors and implications for curriculum design

Traditional and Web-based learning environments in an MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) program setting are compared. Using pre- and post-questionnaires administered to students and in-depth student and instructor interviews, the authors investigate differences in perceptions and outcomes in each environment. The authors found no significant differences in student performance between the two forms. Students did perceive differences in the educational experiences between both approaches, emphasizing the greater need for specific student and instructor qualities for success in the Web-based environment. Differences were also found between instructors and students in the importance placed on factors that determine course success. Both instructors and students must recognize the constraints and opportunities presented by the Web environment, which, when used in conjunction with other technologies, permit multiple forms of contact for effective learning. Implications for learning and curriculum design are discussed.

Considering the ethics of big data research: A case of Twitter and ISIS/ISIL

This is a formal commentary, responding to Matthew Curran Benigni, Kenneth Joseph, and Kathleen Carley’s contribution, “Online extremism and the communities that sustain it: Detecting the ISIS supporting community on Twitter”. This brief review reflects on the ethics of big data research methodologies, and how novel methods complicate long-standing principles of research ethics. Specifically, the concept of the “data subject” as a corollary, or replacement, of “human subject” is considered.