The documentary analysis of email posts and archives for qualitative research has been outlined elsewhere. Although there is an increase in the number of studies being conducted on listserv and newsgroup material in health research, this has not always been accompanied by a careful, in-depth consideration of the concomitant ethical issues. Therefore, this article outlines the ethical considerations surrounding this form of research, including issues of accessing voices, consent, privacy, anonymity, interpretation, and ownership and authorship of research material.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Akeroyd, A. V. (1991). Personal information and qualitative research data: Some practical and ethical problems arising from data protection legislation. In N. G. Fielding & R. M. Lee (Eds.), Using computers in qualitative research (pp. 89-106). London: Sage Ltd.
2.
Allen, C. (1996). What’s wrong with the “golden rule”? Conundrums of conducting ethical research in cyberspace. The Information Society, 12, 175-187.
3.
American Psychological Association . (1992). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved October 20, 1997, from the World Wide Web. Available: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code.html
4.
Banister, P. , Burman, E., Parker, I., Taylor, M., & Tindall, C. (1994). Qualitative methods in psychology: A research guide. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
5.
Boehlefeld, S. P. (1996). Doing the right thing: Ethical cyberspace research. The Information Society, 12(2), 141-152.
6.
Borland, K. (1991). “That’s not what I said”: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research. In S. Berger Gluck & D. Patal (Eds.), Women’s words: The feminist practice of oral history (pp. 63-75). Boston: Routledge Kegan Paul.
7.
British Psychological Society . (1993). Ethical principles. The Psychologist, 6, 33-35.
8.
British Psychological Society . (1995). Code of conduct. The Psychologist, 8(10), 452-453.
9.
British Sociological Association . (1993). BSA statement of ethical practice. Retrieved February 21, 2000, from the World Wide Web. Available: http://www.britsoc.org.uk/ethgu2.htm
10.
Burton, P. F. (1994). Electronic mail as an academic discussion forum. Journal of Documentation, 50, 99-110.
11.
Cavazos, E. A. (1994). Intellectual property. In E. Cavazos & G. Morin (Eds.), Cyberspace and the law: Your rights and duties in the on-line world (pp. 44-66). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
12.
Davis, D. (1991, July-August). Rich cases: The ethics of thick description. Hastings Centre Report, 12-17.
13.
Egdorf, K. , & Rahoi, R. L. (1994, November 19). Finding a place where “we all want to here it”: Email as a source of social support. Paper presented at the annual convention of the Speech Communication Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.
14.
Finn, J. , & Lavitt, M. (1994). Computer based self help groups for sexual abuse survivors. Social Work With Groups, 17, 21-46.
15.
Fleitas, J. (1998). Spinning tales from the world wide web: Qualitative research in an electronic environment. Qualitative Health Research, 8, 283-292.
16.
Foster, G. (1994). Fishing with the net for research data. British Journal of Educational Technology, 25(2), 91-97.
17.
Garton, L. (1997). Studying online social networks. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(1) [on-line serial]. Available: http://www.ascusc.org.jcmc/vol3/issue1/garton.html
18.
Gilbert, P. (1997). On space, sex and stalkers. Women and Performance, 17. Retrieved February 11, 1998, from the World Wide Web. Available: http://www.echonyc.com/%7Ewomen/Issue17/art-gilbert.html
19.
Gurak, L. J. (1996). The multifaceted and novel nature of using cyber-texts as research data. In T. M. Harrison & T. Stephen (Eds.), Computer networking and scholarly communication in the twenty-first-century (pp. 151-165). New York: State University of New York Press.
20.
Her Majesty’s Stationary Office . (1984). Data Protection Act. Retrieved October 20, 1997, from the World Wide Web. Available: http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1984/1984035.htm
21.
Herring, S. (1996). Posting in a different voice: Gender and ethics in computer-mediated communication. In C. Ess (Ed.), Philosophical perspectives on computer-mediated communication (pp. 115-145). Albany: State University of New York Press.
22.
Homan, R. (1991). The ethics of social research. White Plains, NY: Longman.
23.
Howard, T. (1993). The property issue in email research. The Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication, LVI(2), 40-41.
24.
Josselson, R. (Ed.). (1996). Ethics and process in the narrative study of lives. London: Sage Ltd.
25.
Kiesler, S. , Siegel, J., & McGuire, T.W. (1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. American Psychologist, 39, 1123-1134.
26.
King, S. A. (1994). Analysis of electronic support groups for recovering addicts. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century, 2(3), 47-56 [On-line serial]. Available: http://www.notredame.ac.Jp/ftplib/Articles/CMC/King94.txt
27.
King, S. A. (1996). Researching Internet communities: Proposed ethical guidelines for the reporting of results. The Information Society, 12, 119-127.
28.
Langford, D. (1996). Ethics and the internet: Appropriate behaviour in electronic communication. Ethics and Behaviour, 6(2), 91-106.
29.
Lauer, T. W. (1996). Computer ethics [Book review]. Ethics and Behaviour, 6(2), 165-167.
30.
Mailbase . (1998). Copyright of email messages. Retrieved January 1, 1999, from the World Wide Web. Available: http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/owners-unique/1998-11/0004.html
31.
Michalak, E. E. (1998). The use of the Internet as a research tool: The nature and characteristics of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) amongst a population of users. Interacting With Computers, 9, 349-365.
32.
Moore, M. , Sixsmith, J., & Knowles, K. (1996). Children’s reflections on family life. London: Falmer.
33.
Murray, P. J. (1995). Research data from cyberspace: Interviewing nurses by email. Health Informatics, 1, 73-76.
34.
Murray, P. J. (1997). Using virtual focus groups in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 27, 542-549.
35.
Murray, C. D. , & Sixsmith, J. (1996, December 18). Technologising the body: The meaning(s) of prosthesis use by amputees. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society London Conference, England.
36.
Murray, C. D. , & Sixsmith, J. (1998). Email: A qualitative research medium for interviewing?International Journal of Social Research Methodology: Theory and Practice, 1(2), 103-121.
37.
Nochi, M. (1998). Struggling with the labeled self: People with traumatic brain injuries in social settings. Qualitative Health Research, 8, 665-681.
38.
Oral History Association . (1996). Oral history evaluation guidelines. Pamphlet number retrieved May 16, 1997, from the World Wide Web. Available: http//:www.baylor.edu/%7EOHA/EvaluationGuidelines.html%23OralHistoryEvaluationGuidelines
39.
Potter, J. , & Wetherell, M. (1995). Discourse analysis. In J. A. Smith, R. Harre, & L. Van Langenhove (Eds.), Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 80-92). London: Sage Ltd.
40.
Reid, E. (1991). Electropolis: Communication and community in Internet relay chat. Retrieved September 30, 1997, from the World Wide Web, Available: http://www.crl.com/%7Eemrc/electropolis.txt
41.
Reid, E. (1996). Informed consent in the study of on-line communities: A reflection of the effects of computer-mediated social research. The Information Society, 12, 169-174.
42.
Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
43.
Ribbens, J. (1989). Interviewing: An unnatural situation?Women’s Studies International Forum, 12, 579-592.
44.
Short, J. , Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. New York: John Wiley.
45.
Stone, A. R. (1995). Sex and death among the disembodied: VR, cyberspace, and the nature of academic discourse. In S. L. Starr (Ed.), The cultures of computing (pp. 243-255). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
46.
Sudweeks, F. , & Rafaeli, S. (1996). How do you get a hundred strangers to agree? Computer-mediated communication and collaboration. In T. M. Harrison & T. Stephen (Eds.), Computer networking and scholarly communication in the twenty-first-century (pp. 115-136). New York: State University of New York Press.
47.
Waskul, D. , & Douglass, M. (1996). Considering the electronic participant: Some polemical observations on the ethics of on-line research. The Information Society, 12(2), 129-139.
48.
Winzelberg, A. (1997). The analysis of an electronic support group for individuals with eating disorders. Computers in Human Behaviour, 13, 393-407.
49.
Yow, V. R. (1984). Recording oral history: A practical guide for social scientists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
