_____ From: C Cook or A McDonald [mailto:bodhi@nznet.gen.nz] Sent: Thursday, 12 April 2007 08:44 To: 'air-l@listserv.aoir.org' Subject: Re: [Air-l] consent for asynchronous qualitative email Thank you for your reply and suggestions, Kristin. I anticipate that I will be able to obtain ethics approval as a number of other nurse researchers internationally have used in-depth email interviews for 'sensitive' topics, using a variety of mechanisms to protect participants' confidentiality to a level considered adequate to enable ease of participation and reasonable security. The use of g-mail, hotmail and encryption all allow for anonymising participants. It is specifically the consent procedures that are currently a focus for me. Kind regards, Catherine Cook PhD candidate Message: 5 Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 19:03:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "Kristin R. Wolfe" <wolfek857@duq.edu> Subject: Re: [Air-l] consent for asynchronous qualitative email interviews withinternational participants I believe that an email interview may not get past the ethics review because the name of the participant would be tied to the email.
I am a PhD candidate and I am preparing for my ethics application to
conduct
interviews by email in the area of women's sexual health (ie 'sensitive'
topic). From the literature there seem to be a variety of acceptable
options
with regard to consent, from tacit agreement inherent in the decision to
participate through to a variety of procedures to obtain some form of
consent documentation.