Ethics of Online Research

Note from Ron Iphofen, series editor: Sadly Kandy Woodfield passed away in 2019. Her career as a social researcher and learning & development professional led her to take on many roles and challenges. She was Head of Learning and Development at Samaritans, UK, and her previous roles included Head of Social Sciences at the Higher Education Academy and Director of Learning & Enterprise at NatCen Social Research. Kandy was a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Learning & Performance Institute and had worked across the academic, public and third sectors. She founded the New Social Media New Social Science? (#NSMNSS) community of practice and edited a crowd-sourced book of blogs on Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries. The Series Editor, Ron Iphofen, had this to say: "It was a privilege to have worked with Kandy to see this volume through to publication. I had known Kandy for some years since her work in NatCen and was pleased when she offered to produce this work. She was a delight to work with, engaged, committed and compassionate. We shared many anecdotes about our living and working experiences, without getting too far off track from working on the volume. Despite illness she was determined to see it through. I am proud to have her informed contribution as part of this Series."

Social science researchers from the UK and Australia provide 10 chapters on the ethical aspects of internet-mediated and social media research. They address ethical challenges of specific research issues, social media platforms, or approaches, particularly the organized ethics review process; users’ views of ethics in social media research; the roles of researchers and participants; Twitter as a data source; informed consent; the use of Tinder; publishing and sharing social media research data; an ethics framework for working with social media data; and recommendations for improving ethical standards. The volume originated in the formation of an online community of practice called “New Social Media, New Social Science?” in 2011.

• Introduction: The Ethics of Online Research; Kandy Woodfield and Ron Iphofen1. The Ethical Disruptions of Social Media Data: Tales from the Field; Susan Halford2. Users’ View of Ethics in Social Media Research: Informed Consent, Anonymity and Harm; Matthew L. Williams, Pete Burnap, Luke Sloan, Curtis Jessop and Hayley Lepps3. The Changing Roles of Researchers and Participants in Digital and Social Media Research: Ethics Challenges and Forward Directions; Sarah Quinton and Nina Reynolds4. Using Twitter as a Data Source: An Overview of Ethical, Legal and Methodological Challenges; Wasim Ahmed, Peter A. Bath, Gianluca Demartini5. Getting to Yes: Informed Consent in Qualitative Social Media Research; Janet Salmons6. The Trouble with Tinder: The Ethical Complexities of Researching Location-Aware Social Discovery Apps; Jenna Condie, Garth Lean and Brittany Wilcockson7. Ethical Challenges of Publishing and Sharing Social Media Research Data; Libby Bishop and Daniel Gray8. The Ethics of Using Social Media Data in Research: A New Framework; Leanne Townsend and Claire Wallace9. Where Next for #SocialEthics?; Steven GinnisConclusion: Guiding the Ethics of Online Social Media Research - Adaptation or Renovation?; Ron Iphofen