The Ethics of Human Studies Research in the 21st Century

Abstract

Since 1979, the Belmont Report has been the core ethical guide for human and social research in academic and industrial studies, both in the United States and elsewhere. The report's guidelines now form the basis for such oversight in a variety of domains beyond its original purview in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. However, modern research environments introduce numerous new challenges, especially in relation to advanced communications and information technologies. Research in these fields today takes place in a transnational setting of ubiquitous computing and data acquisition in highly-interconnected networks, which are overlaid across varied, and often incompatible, legal regimes and social norms. In this talk, we explore these challenges, with emphasis on virtual worlds, augmented reality, and social networks, especially in an international context, and propose some innovative new opportunities for addressing them.