Maybe I misunderstand something in your question here but what journals or books publish participant narratives for general (you mean general public?) use? The difference between publishing a quote (anywhere) as part of an academic text and publishing raw research data is that the quote is selected for a particular purpose and comes with a suggested interpretation. Such selection and explanation of quotes involves caring for participants stories for example by not choosing quotes that misrepresent them and not "taking things out of context" but it also normally involves anonymizing. Sharing raw data with a general public can in my opinion only be done under the condition that participants were aware that the data would be made public, that they understand the consequences of this (no control over who uses it or how it may be interpreted) and that one is sure that no harm could come of it. One would also have to take in to consideration the methodological dilemma of how people may (or should I say will) alter their stories if they know that they are going to be available to a general public. -åsa -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Amy Barackman Sent: den 12 november 2009 21:13 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] Ethics and Online Presentation? Dear All, I am currently helping Dr. Koelsch from Duquesne University do research on the ethics related to the online presentation of participant narratives. I would love to get input from the AoIR group on the relevant research on this topic. Specifically, I am interested in the following: 1) Is there precedent for putting narratives on an online site for general use? 2) If not, what might be some ethical issues that would differentiate the confidentiality of narratives in an online space from those that are published in a book or journal? Any leads would be appreciated! Amy -- Amy Barackman, M.A. Graduate Student Duquesne University Pittsburgh, PA 15282 (203) 648-6005 _______________________________________________ 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/