At 10:18 AM 12/21/2004, you wrote:
Hello, I am now in the middle of filling out an IRB form for research that I intend to do on blogging practices, and it seems that any research done on "human subjects" must keep personally identifying information confidential. This is a difficult issue, since one's username and blog title would identify an individual, but they may also be understood as published/public information. If anyone has encountered a similar situation and can advise as to how I should proceed or who can offer research references that deal with this issue, that would be much appreciated. Take care, Oriana Gatta Women's Studies M.A. candidate Georgia State University
Almost ALL of us have encountered this situation, Oriana. It is made all the more difficult by the fact that, even if you devise pseudonyms to protect your subjects, a simple Google search will turn up the original blog and the identity will be revealed. As you work through this struggle with your IRB, I strongly suggest that you consult the AoIR ethics guidelines, which may be found at http://aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf There are no simple solutions here, just difficult decisions that you (and your IRB) must make. ------ Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain