Journalists routinely "process" information before writing, and they often present conclusions in their written work. It is a LONG running IRB discussion why they are exempt from Human Subjects rules...but they are on the U.S. Federal level. I understand that some universities are looking at making changes locally, and if they do more than pilot a requirement I will be watching closely. In fact, I know of more than one case where a researcher/journalist asked for and received IRB approval for a project and published about "approved" and "unapproved" work from the same project. The first was done as a social scientist, the second as a journalist. Is it ethical? Well I think that depends on how you look at issues like those we are discussing here. Ed, I find it to be an incomplete argument that we are held to a higher standard then any of the other career paths you listed. In fact, I would almost bet that at least people reading this list has held one of those titles and been a social science researcher at the same time. And many of us blog and do social science research at the same time. As a blogger my work has been studied and used as data in dissertations, and theses some with my permission some without. Most of these products are available in whole or in part as digital text online. So someone can search on either my given name or my blog's name and eventually find these published works. I can tell you truthfully that I have never received a notifiable increase in visits to my blog after one is published. But the day I was "Feedster Feed of the Day," back in 2005, I exhausted my monthly bandwidth by noon PST - in fact in two days I used as much bandwidth as I had in the previous eleven months. Was I asked if I wanted to be included...no...I was not. Did my inclusion have a cost to me...you bet, I had to pay money to up my bandwidth for the month, and from then forward as my readership grew. Was I injured...well if you want to see it that way, sure I was. Of course I also see the positive side of this as well...I got more readers and that was cool. My point is that lots of other viewers have the power to cause much more harm than anything I do with my research. It's an issue of "potential" harm first - and you plan to address all likely potentials - and then you learn from mistakes and unexpected outcomes after...that is the nature of social science research. Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and IUPUC, Columbus IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com