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Great thread. Another associated concern that has not been raised, I think, is the issue of just who is participating in this list, especially when tensions in current midwifery theory/ practice are discussed. It would be a great shame to silence, for example, NHS practitioners, if they felt that confidentiality was compromised in a way that didn't fit with their obligations to their NHS employer, especially if they are at 'the leading edge of practice'. Perhaps this is more an issue for the more normative 'normal birth' jisclist, however ? Jo ________________________________________ From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scamell, Amanda [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 12 December 2010 08:56 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions Hi Nicky, Quite so and I think here lies the rub. Research design and ethical considerations are tightly linked. In some cases, therefore, the notion of formal, prospective informed consent (that is to say, those consent procedures generally privileged by ethics committees) does not necessarily apply to some research designs. My question is (another one?!) should the fact that 'the one size fits all' approach does not, in fact, actually fit all, justify abandoning ethical principles? My own research background is in anthropological ethnography, which means that these are precisely the ethical problems faced everyday 'in the field'. I'm not trying to suggest that they are easily overcome, far from it, I'm simply interested that debate on these concerns when using virtual interaction as a data source, appears to be relatively undeveloped. Incidentally, if anyone is interested Social Science and Medicine did a nice special edition on the ethics of ethnography in health research a few years ago - this does not touch on the virtual data issue at all but my own personal research experience suggests that the ethical concerns RE ethnographic participants overlaps significantly with the issues which have been raised in this thread (Soc.Sci.Med., 2007, 65, 11). Thanks for raising this point Nicky, its been really helpful for me to get a proper handle on what it is I am uncomfortable with in all of this. Thanks again to everyone for their contributions on this thread, its been great! Mandie Scamell ________________________________________ From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nicky Grace [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 11 December 2010 00:43 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions Hi Mandy Surely the 'text' on a publicly available group is quite different ethically to data gathered say in an interview for a particular study. In that case, of course the participant needs to be aware of the aims of the study, how the data will be used, and an agreement reached between researcher and participant regarding how the data will be interpreted, whether the participant also has interpretive rights, anonymity and other interesting things. The text in that instance is being gathered specifically for the purposes of the particular study (although depending on the agreed parameters, at least some of it may enter the public domain). But if we have written words which are conveyed on a publicly available space such as a newspaper, journal, book, or email group, then those words (I am suggesting) become freely available for analysis (within the bounds of copyright etc). We as individuals are not participants in any particular study; however our words/text will be interpreted by others if we have chosen to expose them in this way, and may be used within other texts (intertextuality). Maybe, however, there is an important difference between print and email - we are so much less guarded in email, so much more likely to get caught up in a particular debate, dash something off - and then regret it in the morning! Nicky Independent Midwife www.gracewife.co.uk<http://www.gracewife.co.uk/> ________________________________ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:58:56 +1300 From: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions To: [log in to unmask] Here's a few more words from Amanda to clarify her question: Hi Sarah, Not sure which question you are alluding to, I feel like I have raised quite a few of late! Can the JISC be used as a measure of discourse thing was meant to be referring to idea of using public virtual discussions as data for research. But my last concern was RE the JISC guidelines where preoccupation with protecting poster's copyright ie protection of intellectual property, appears to operate to obscure any other concerns which might coalesce around data collection in relation to protecting research 'participants' identity. Why should issues of confidentiality be suspended simply because the interaction being used as data took place in the virtual world. Of course in a publicly available list theoretically anyone could look up who said what, however I'm not convinced this justifies abandoning routine ethical research procedure. If someone was to use my post, for example, I would be far more comfortable if I knew both the source and my personal identity were being anonymised. Hope that clarifies what I meant, apologies for being unclear, haste and speed jump to mind. Mandie Scamell