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Some researchers consider most social media communications as public, and posts from networks such as Twitter are routinely harvested and published without anonymization and without direct consent from users. In this chapter, we argue that researchers must move beyond the permissions granted by ‘legal’ accounts of the use of these new forms of data (e.g., Terms and Conditions) to a more nuanced and reflexive ethical approach that puts user expectations, safety, and privacy rights center stage. Through two projects, we present qualitative and quantitative data that illustrate social media users’ views on the use of their data by researchers. Over four in five report expecting to be asked for their consent and nine in ten expect anonymity ahead of publication of their Twitter posts. Given the unique nature of this online public environment and what we know about users’ views pertaining to informed consent, anonymity, and harm, we conclude researchers seeking to embark on social media research should conduct a risk assessment to determine likely privacy infringement and potential user harm from publishing user content.

The chapter discusses the uniqueness of qualitative research that does not allow meeting the terms of consent as they are applied in traditional, positivist research with pre-defined goals that aim to validate hypotheses.

It is proposed adopting an ethics that promotes trust-based, reflective and dynamic relations between researchers and participants, centering on caring, humanity and concern. The suggested alternative approach views consent as an ongoing process that takes place throughout the entire course of the study; responsibility for protection of participants is expected of participants too, and is not the duty of researchers alone; mutuality must take place in the form of an ongoing, continuous dialogue; it is in order to consider fair recompense for participants too, thus reducing the one-sidedness of the research interest, and the chances that participants will decide to withdraw before completion of the study.

This article aims to highlight the importance of a complete and accurate medical record as it pertains to potential risk exposure in the outpatient physical therapy profession.

Basic charting rules, correction and alteration recommendations, documentation of telephone conversations, informed consent, exculpatory release forms and incident reports are discussed. Basic risk management strategies are reviewed that may reduce outpatient physical therapy practitioners' malpractice exposure.

The authors contend that quality and thorough documentation is as important as the quality of the care that is delivered to patients, since medical records are legal documents and serve as valuable evidence as to what transpired between patients and the healthcare providers.

Practical documentation strategies are described in a manner that will inform physical therapists of their legal obligations relating to patient care.

Deepfake information poses more ethical risks than traditional disinformation in terms of fraud, slander, rumors and other malicious uses. However, owing to its high entertainment value, deepfake information with ethical risks has become popular. This study aims to understand the role of ethics and entertainment in the acceptance and regulation of deepfake information.

Mixed methods were used to qualitatively identify ethical concerns and quantitatively evaluate the influence of ethical concerns and perceived enjoyment on the ethical acceptability and social acceptance of deepfake information.

The authors confirmed that informed consent, privacy protection, traceability and non-deception had a significantly positive impact on ethical acceptability and indirectly influenced social acceptance, with privacy protection being the most sensitive. Perceived enjoyment impacts the social acceptance of deepfake information and significantly weakens the effect of ethical acceptability on social acceptance.

The ethical concerns affecting acceptance behavior identified in this study provide an entry point for the ethical regulation of deepfake information. The weakening effect of perceived enjoyment on ethics serves as a wake-up call for regulators to guard against pan-entertainment deepfake information.

Ethical practices in relation to indigenous research require that the researcher decolonise the research. This can be challenging when institutional guidelines are unclear but at the same time exacting in terms of the level of input required as a prerequisite for approval. This article explores the ambiguities of approval through a study of the application process for ‘my’ doctoral research to observe indigenous athlete‐role models engaging with young people. I draw on Simmel’s (1976) ‘stranger’ to enunciate the constraints of approval and consent within a decolonising methodology and to propose the possibilities of an ethics of the self.

Over the past decade, the number of people engaging with social media has grown rapidly. This means that social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are potentially good sources of rich, naturally occurring data. As a result, a growing number of researchers are utilizing these platforms for the collection of data on any number of topics. To date, no consistent approach to the ethics of using social media data has been provided to researchers in this sphere. This chapter presents research that has developed an ethics framework for the use of researchers working with social media data. The chapter also presents the framework itself and guidance on how to use the framework when conducting social media research. A full report can be accessed on: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/research/new-europe-centre/information-societies-projects-225.php

Research with vulnerable groups is crucial to get their input into public policy design that will directly impact on them. However, there are many methodological and ethical challenges involved in encouraging participation from groups with a wide range of intellectual, cognitive and physical capacities while ensuring that the rights and well-being of participants are protected. Rather than exploring ethical theories, this chapter is a case study describing the practical ethical considerations that were involved in designing and holding a series of focus groups with adult health and social care service users from vulnerable cohorts. It is based on a series of focus groups which the Institute of Public Health (IPH) held with specified cohorts as part of a policy development process on adult safeguarding for the Department of Health (DOH) in Ireland. The four cohorts were people with intellectual disability, cognitive impairments, significant mental health challenges and nursing home residents. This chapter does not describe the findings of the focus groups but outlines the ethical and methodological considerations that arose in designing and conducting this research, and the practical ethical safeguards employed to mitigate risk and comply with Irish and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation governing health research. It outlines the ethical issues around protecting confidentiality and using incentives to encourage participation, how individuals' capacity to give informed consent was maximized, the risk-assessment and mitigation procedures used to prevent harms arising and the measures put in place to provide follow-up emotional support to participants.

Research within the fields of youth sexuality and safeguarding, and ethical governance more broadly, has traditionally prioritised risk aversion over the rights of young people to participate in and shape research. This excludes younger people from setting agendas and directly communicating their lived experience to those in power. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper describes and draws upon findings from an innovative two year participatory action research study exploring sexual consent with young people through embedded and participatory research across seven sites. The project was designed with young people and practised non-traditional approaches to research consent. As well as co-producing research data, the findings highlight how methods of co-enquiry and being explicit about the research consent process enabled young people to develop competence that can be applied in other contexts.

The paper addresses ethical tensions between young people’s rights to participation and protection. It argues that alongside robust safeguarding procedures, there is equal need to develop robust participation and engagement strategies with an explicit focus on young people’s competence, agency and rights to participate regardless of the perceived sensitivity of the topic.

The paper concludes with proposals for future youth-centred research practice. These relate to research design, ethical governance processes around risk and sensitive topics, emphasis on working collaboratively with young people and practitioners, a greater focus on children and young people’s rights – including Gillick competence and fluid models of consent. In doing so, it presents an essential point of reference for those seeking to co-produce research with young people in the UK and beyond.

Broker/dealers and investment managers that trade municipal securities on behalf of their clients are preparing for the shift from “end‐of‐the‐day batch” trade reporting to “real‐time” transaction reporting. In January 2005, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) will be initiating its Real‐time Transaction Reporting System (the “RTRS”). Amended MSRB Rule G‐14 now requires dealers to report transactions in municipal securities within 15 minutes of the time of trade execution, instead of by midnight on trade date. Rule G‐12(f) was amended to require municipal securities dealers to submit inter‐dealer transactions to the Central Comparison System within the same time frame. Investment advisers that engage in principal transactions with their clients or that are dually‐registered as, or affiliated with, broker/dealers that trade securities as principals on behalf of investment adviser clients generally must comply with the client notice and consent requirements set forth under Section 206(3) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”). In light of the acceleration of the MSRB’s trade reporting requirement, investment advisers should consider the extent to which these new requirements impact their obligation to notify clients of the fact that a principal trade is being processed and to secure each client’s approval prior to the completion of each transaction. At the very least, the implementation of the RTRS should prompt advisers to confirm, in fulfillment of their best execution obligations, that each broker/dealer that is executing their municipal securities trades complies with the new 15‐minute reporting window.