Dear AoIR-ists: As you may know, the guidelines originally published in 2001 by the National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social sciences and the Humanities (NESH), Norway, played a significant role in the discussion and development of the AoIR guidelines for online research. More recently (September 24, 2003), NESH developed and published (in Norwegian, of course) a set of guidelines specifically oriented to internet research, the "Forskningsetiske retningslinjer for internettforskning" - available at http://www.etikkom.no/retningslinjer/internett I'm pleased to say that NESH has approved an English translation of the guidelines undertaken by Line Gulløv Lundh and me. (Believe me, Ms. Lundh - a student working with ethics committee member Klaus Bruhn Jensen at Copenhagen University- did the majority of the work!) I commend the new guidelines to your attention, not only for their own sake (to my knowledge, they are the only ones explicitly developed by a national authority for online research - please correct me if I'm wrong!) - but also for what they suggest regarding the range of views and approaches on online ethics: http://www.etikkom.no/Engelsk/Publications/internet03 Comments and suggestions welcome! Cheers and all best wishes, Charles Ess Visiting Professor (fall, '03) Department of Digital Aesthetics and Communication (DIAC) The IT University of Copenhagen Glentevej 67 DK-2400 Copenhagen NV Telephone: +45 38 16 89 63 Mobile: +45 22 46 06 35 Fascimile: +45 38 16 88 99 Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Springfield, MO 65802 USA voice: 417-873-7230 fax: 417-873-7435 homepage: <www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html> Co-chair, CATaC '04: <it.murdoch.edu.au/catac>