Their ethics PDF is really useful: http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf
I was very interested to see how it captures all of the issues we were raising (on both sides of the question, I might add).
Although I've decided as a result of our discussion to contact the authors of the emails to explain the context and ask them about typos, I think on my reading that my actual intended use seems to be pretty clearly ethical, and, indeed, not actually "Internet research" in the sense of a meta study or something that uses the content in a way it was not intended to be used (i.e. as part of a debate about the issues they raise as part of their content rather than through the act of posting.
Thanks very much again Suzana, this is extremely useful. Not only here, but also at a journal I edit where the question of human subjects came up simultaneously with our discussion in a completely different context.
On 14-02-06 03:58 AM, Suzana Sukovic wrote:
Dear all, Discussions about privacy and what constitutes ethical research based on data from the mailing list are appearing on several threads. Association of Internet Researchers has discussed these issues for a long time. AoIR has a wiki and ethics guide http://aoir.org/documents/ethics-guide/
I'd recommend their mailing list, at least for a short time, as a quick dip into complexities of dealing with online subjects http://aoir.org/email-list/
Enjoy!
Suzana
Dr Suzana Sukovic *Head of Learning Resource Centre* St Vincent's College|Locked Bag 2700|Potts Point, NSW, 1335|Australia Tel: 61 2 9368 1611 ext 215|Fax: 61 2 9356 2118 *Research Associate, The University of Sydney* *Co-Chair, ALIA Research Advisory Committee* Contact Me LinkedIn http://s.wisestamp.com/links?url=http%3A%2F%2Flinkd.in%2Fg2F4gu Facebook http://s.wisestamp.com/links?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSuzanaSukovic%23%21%2F Twitter http://s.wisestamp.com/links?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsuzanasukovic
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