Hi Brook, I have been working a bit with internet research ethics and as far as I can tell blogs are one of those things that almost has to be considered publicly published information in general. "How" public though, I´d say depends on what the intended audience seems to be. I would be more careful with someone that seems to be blogging mainly for their family for example, than someone that is blogging about politics. When working with these issues I was intially thinking a lot about how diffrent applications might make for diffrent ethical judgements to be suitable. This is true to some extent, but now I´m more thinking that the "big" question is most times rather what you are going to do with your data. I think your research might stir up some emotions, and so, it might seem most safe to go about it the way you have described. I cant help wondering though, how are you going to convince readers of your research without using qoutations? Perhaps an alternate route would be to not anonymize the participants, actually use quotations and instead offer to consider the input of the participants on your interpretations. This would not mean that you have to alter your conclusions in case some participant objects to them, but it would mean that you keep your interpretations open for scrutiny both for participants and other researchers (a participant would then for example be able to blog about your research once it is published). This will take some guts, and it will be a little less safe also for participants. But unless you think that such an approach might result in serious harm it might be very useful. See, if we always keep taking the "safest" route possible, we will never know where the line is to be drawn and we might be producing research that is not as good as it could be simply cause we are overcautious (See for example Bassett & O'Riordan 2002; White 2002). The question from your participant who had conserns about consenting on behalf of her readers is very interesting. Obviously, she can not consent on behalf of people who comment (readers who do not comment cant be part of your study from what I can tell, cause you dont know who they are), unless she posts a notice on her blog about the blog being subject for research. I think what I would reply here actually is that the process of getting consent from bloggers but not from people who comment is a negotiation between whats ethically desirable and practically feasible. I dont see why you would have to contact blogger (and the likes) to ask for permission unless you are going to bring up the issue of blog providers particularly and analyze them. They simply provide a medium, just like book or magazine publishers. For some parts of your research your local laws will be relevant, such as laws on how to handle databases (if you make lists of participants including "sensitive" information such as ethnicity, political affiliations et.c.). In general though it should be the laws of the countries where your participants reside which are important. I do not know what the law says about this in Switzerland, but I find it hard to think that you could get in to any legal problems here as long as you keep to regular norms for citation. If you are ONLY using whats in the blogs, and thus only what has already been published internationally that is. If you are also doing interviews and publishing info on individuals that has not already been published, then you will most likely need to anonymize. Hope that helps, Åsa Rosenberg REFS: Bassett, E.H. & O'Riordan, Kathleen (2002). " Ethics of Internet research: Contesting the human subjects research model." Ethics and Information Technology 4 (3) pp. 233-247. White, Michele (2002). "Representations or people?" Ethics and Information Technology 4 (3) pp. 249-266. -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] För brook bolander Skickat: den 9 augusti 2007 09:13 Till: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Ämne: [Air-L] Dissertation Dear AOIR, I am writing my PhD on the subject of "power in blogs", and thereby exploring how power is negotiated in the interaction between bloggers and their readers, and between the readers themselves in the comments sections of blog posts in which conflicts are salient. I have received an initial e-mail confirmation from the bloggers that they consent to my research and have given them the option of requiring me to use psuedonyms. I now intend to write to the bloggers, asking for their addresses, so I can outline the project in more detail and obtain written consent. I am aware, however, that research on the internet can be very complicated in terms of ethical issues. What I am less sure about are the legal issues. Am I correct in assuming that if I do not include quotations, use pseudonyms for the readers (whose permission I have not gained), use pseudonyms for those bloggers who ask me to (one blogger has explicitly asked me not to), gain written consent from the bloggers themselves and inform them in the letter what the study entails, that I will run into no ethical or legal problems? All my bloggers state they are adults. Or do I need to write to the hosts as well, like blogger, for example, to ask for their permission as well? One of the bloggers asked me whether she would have any problems vis à vis her readers if she consented to my study, for example, and I found I didn't really know, with any certainty, what to reply. I hope that my PhD will be published in a couple of years, and am not sure whether that plays a role in terms of its label as something for 'commerical purposes'. I am writing my PhD in Switzerland. I really want to go about this the right way and am having problems gaining the information I need. Thanks a lot in advance for your help, Best wishes Brook Bolander _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/