Global Challenges Doctoral Centre

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Ethics and Governance of Internet-Mediated Research

The digital ecosystem contains unprecedented amounts of highly diverse and accessible data that allows us to research human culture. This lecture looks at the rapidly evolving issue of ethics and governance when it comes to internet-mediated research. While this session is not intended to be a definitive guide to aspects such as GDPR, copyright, etc, it aims to provide an understanding of potential ethical and governance issues that may be encounter or not may not have been previously considered.

Led by: Dr David Roberts, School of Anthropology and Conservation

This session will discuss:

  • Prior Informed Consent
  • Personal data
  • Copyright
  • Data access and collection
  • Personal security

Prerequisites: participants would benefit from having a basic knowledge of research ethics before attending this course.

For further reading, see:

  • Bazzell (2019) Open Source Intelligence Techniques. IntelTechniques.com (NB: 2019 edition has opening chapters on personal security when conducting online research)
  • British Psychological Society (2017) Ethics Guidelines for Internet-Mediated Research. INF206/04.2017
  • Nissenbaum (2009) Privacy in Context: Technology, policy, and the integrity of social life. Stanford University Press.
  • Nissenbaum (2011) A contextual approach to privacy online. Daedalus 140:32-48.
  • Spinello (2010) Cyberethics: Morality and law in cyberspace. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

For further resources and advice, see:

  • Research Ethics & Governance https://research.kent.ac.uk/researchservices/ethics/
  • Information Compliance (inc. GDPR) https://www.kent.ac.uk/infocompliance/
  • Copyright https://www.kent.ac.uk/is/copyright/index.html
  • Managing Research Data https://www.kent.ac.uk/guides/manage-your-research-data

Watch the training video here (Kent access only)