C H A P TE R 8
Confidentiality of information provided by participants to the researchers needs to be respected. Since these data constitute private information, field notes, tapes, questionnaires and so on, need to be stored in safe and secure locations. Data collected should be used only for the purpose agreed with the participant and not shared with others. If a participant decides to withdraw from the study, or withdraw something s/he has said, the record of the information must be destroyed.
Ethics and Logistics of Data Collection
experience or thoughts in order to advance a study project. It is important that research participants receive feedback about the findings of the study and, if applicable, benefit from the study results themselves. Advocacy and intervention - Beyond dissemination of results to academic audiences, researchers often forget to ensure that a process is in place for the uptake of results amongst stakeholders such as policy makers and programme implementers (depending on the nature of the research). Activities that can be described as advocacy or information for interventions are often left out from plans and budgets of research projects.
Linked to these issues is the issue of maintaining participant anonymity. The researcher has the responsibility of keeping the identity of participants private so that they will not be personally identifiable in any outputs. This holds unless there is a specific reason why they should be identified, or if they specifically requested their identity to be given. Despite this, the researcher should make sure that participants understand the consequences of disclosing their identity – for example, the report may end up on the web and be accessible to all. In some situations, where someone can be identified by the position they hold, the researcher should explain when anonymity may not be maintained.
Ethical issues also arise when the research is focused on participants who are ‘vulnerable’ people, that is, those individuals who may have difficulty giving informed consent or saying ‘no’ to your request to participate. This would include groups such as children, women in dependent relationships, particular ethnic groups, and marginalised groups of men and women.
Gaining access to the field When setting up a qualitative research project, you need to consider how access to the field will be gained and what strategies to adopt in order to identify and select research participants. This ‘access to the field’ rarely happens as planned, and one of the most difficult aspects of doing fieldwork is to develop strategies that can help to approach respondents willing to openly share their experience.
Other ethical issues Some of the other ethical aspects of qualitative research relate to data analysis and ownership of data. Trust - when collecting data, a relation of trust is established as research participants contribute to a study with the assumption that their circumstances will be reflected as accurately as possible by the researcher.
Various strategies can be applied to get in touch with potential participants, and the approach you decide on should generally be detailed in the ethical application submitted before the start of the study, which is also a good opportunity for you to clarify how you will select and approach research participants.
Honesty - qualitative data are, like quantitative datasets, easy to manipulate in order to ‘demonstrate’ a pre-conceived idea or result. Researchers have to adhere to a professional ethos which prohibits the manipulation and ‘cherry picking’ of data in order to ‘fit’ an idea that they want to substantiate.
Depending on the issues at stake in the research, you may need to approach participants individually or through a ‘gatekeeper’. You may want to make direct contact using purposive sampling methods with participants who are attending an event or who are gathered in a
Reciprocity - those involved in the research process are investing their time and sharing 55