Hi Jane,

Thanks for that clarification.

I had actually read those guidelines a some time ago and while they appear to confirm the 'fair game' principle in relation to public domain material, I was fascinated by the way that concerns for authorship copyright can disturb interests in confidentiality and anonymity in relation to using such material as research data.  From my limited reading of the literature on this issue, this is a prevalent disconnect which appears to complicate things even further!  I would be very interested to hear how other list users feel about this apparent disconnect. 

   
Mandie Scamell 


_________________________
From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sandall, Jane [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 December 2010 16:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions

Dear All
Listmembers who are interested in this topic should consult the JISCMAIL guidelines here
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/

 *   The list is hosted by JISCMail which is a service which runs mailing lists for the benefit of the UK Higher and Further Education and Research Community

·         You give JISCMail permission to reproduce, deliver, distribute and archive your message as appropriate, and you agree that other JISCMail users may read, save, download or print your message.

 *   Messages sent to a JISCMail list will normally be archived on the list's homepage which is publicly accessible

·         Sending a message to a public discussion list has been compared to sending a letter to the editor of a newsletter. This would be regarded as intended for publication (an implied licence) unless there was clear evidence to the contrary. When you send a message to a public discussion list, you should be aware that:

 *   Other members of the list may keep a copy of the message
 *   The message may be archived and be accessible via a website
 *   The message may be forwarded to other interested parties
 *   Parts of the message may be quoted in discussion. This is implicitly allowed as being reasonable use of a mailing list and to the benefit of all list members. It does not mean that you lose copyright
Moral Rights - When you send a message to a public discussion list, certain 'moral rights' apply. Although your message may be widely disseminated, you have a right to expect the following:

 *   The message is not changed or reworded if forwarded - messages sent to a closed mailing list or to an individual should never be forwarded without the author's permission
 *   Your message is not quoted out of context. - it is not acceptable to quote, or misquote, part of a message in such a way that it misleads people and damages the reputation of the original sender
 *   Attribution is given to the author - the name of the original sender should always be acknowledged. Any appended copyright notice should be respected

·         More information about copyright is available at http://www.JISCMail.ac.uk/help/policy/copyright.htm
The list web page is here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=midwifery-research
Regards
Jane Sandall
List-owner

Professor Jane Sandall
Professor of Social Science and Women's Health
Programme Director (Innovations)
NIHR King's Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre
Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences
King's College London School of Medicine
King's College, London
Floor 7, Capital House, 42 Weston St
London SE1 3QD, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 6261
Mobile: +44(0)7713743150
e-mail:[log in to unmask]
http://www.kingspssq.org.uk/
http://myprofile.cos.com/sandall
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/campuses/guys.html



From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marianne Mead
Sent: 10 December 2010 14:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions

It is possible that the message that appears when one joins the list does indicate that any message could be used in the context of research by anyone.  I have no idea as I can't remember, but if it does not, then people would not really be aware of this possibilty.  So I would still opt for asking individuals if their message could be used.  An alternative would be to state very clearly that content could be used for research and perhaps this could be added as an automatic signature at the end of each message sent via JISCMAIL.

I am aware of an author who used the content of messages on another list, without consent, and this was resented quite strongly.  It was a support group list and so perhaps a lot less acceptable, but even so, I would favour consent wherever possible.

Marianne

________________________________
From: Carolyn Roth <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, 10 December, 2010 8:14:43
Subject: Re: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions

While  Sarah you are probably right 'de jure', I agree with Marianne that since it is possible to confirm consent with individual ocrrespondents and to confirm their preference with respect to identification, it would be both ethical and courteous to seek to do so.

Good luck with the research Robyn.

Carolyn Roth

Lead Midwife for Education

Keele University, School of Nursing & Midwifery

Clinical Education Centre

Newcastle Road

Stoke on Trent

ST4 6QG, UK



Tel. 01782 556698

On 09/12/2010 22:35, Sarah Stewart wrote:
Hello Marianne

I agree with you, except that the archives of this list can be viewed by anyone - you do not have to be a member of this list to see the content of emails. That puts the list in the public domain and "fair game" for research. If it was a completely closed list, that would be a different matter.

regards Sarah

On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Marianne Mead <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear Robyn,

It is true to a certain extent that the content of the JISCMAIL lists are in the public domain, but not absolutely, given that you must join the list to be able to post and get the information.  On the other hand, I would argue that research participants ought to be able to consent to take part in research wherever possible.  In this case, even if you do state that the information you seek is in the context of your PhD, I do not remember that you stated that the questions were posed as research questions to potential research participants.  In this case, you do have the information that you asked for and you can identify the individuals who posted and I would therefore suggest that it would be right to ask these participants if they would consent to the content of their communication to be used.

You still have the issue of the identity of the individual - to identify or not.  I can't imagine that too many people would not give consent for the content to be used, but that does ot necessarily mean that they may wish to be identified; after all, academic writing is probably a little different from interest lists.  It may be that people may prefer to complete the statements they made, or reference them, or perhaps not be identified.

It will be interesting to see what others think.

Marianne


________________________________
From: Robyn Maude [CCDHB] <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, 9 December, 2010 21:19:27
Subject: Ethical use of on-line and email list discussions

Mandie said - "For example can JISC discussions be used as a measure of
midwifery discourse?"

This is an area that I currently seeking guidance from my ethics
committee about and would be interested to get feedback from the group.

I am doing my PhD on intermittent auscultation and over the years (mid
2007, 2009 and again this year) have triggered a couple of threads
around this issue and fetal monitoring in general. There has been a
significant amount of debate all of which is amazingly interesting in
terms of getting a wide range of opninions from midwives and researchers
around the world - almost like an eDelphi in a lot of ways.

When posting on the JISCMAIL lists I have been clear about my PhD
candidacy status and the questions I am asking in that context. I email
the list moderator a while back to seek clarification regarding the
ability to use the material from the discussions and was told it was in
the public domain and could be referenced as personal communication - I
am not sure about this without going back to the individual who make the
comment - so any further advice on this is of value


Robyn Maude



--
Sarah Stewart
Educational Facilitator and Consultant
http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com
Skype: sarah.m.stewart
Twitter: SarahStewart
Second Life: Petal Stransky
+64 27 7379998