Confidentiality During Qualitative Research: Ethical Issues

Explain what ethical considerations there are and how to avoid these issues in your research project.

Informed consent gives the participant the choice of agreeing to part-take in the research whilst simultaneously encompasses the responsibility of the researcher to deliver all the information about the study, its purpose, results, harm, sponsors and the identity of the researchers to the potential participants (McLaughlin 2006, 64). However, several populations, such as children, person with intellectual or mental disabilities will face barriers in comprehending the given information (Wiles, Health, Crow & Charles, 2005; Campbell 1997, p.32). As NCRM manifested, from the field of psychology it has been demonstrated that different methods of information provision impacts the individuals understanding of the research (Wiles, Health, Crow & Charles, 2005). This is particularly a fundamental challenge with groups such as refugees as researchers need to be extra cautious when providing information so the implication of the research is understood. For example, in many instances refugees are shocked to find their stories in public domains through DVDs and magazine, displaying they were unable to understand the repercussions of a released DVD or media article despite giving informed consent (Pittaway, Bartolomei & Hugman 2010, p.233). Furthermore, researchers negotiate access to participants through a range of gatekeepers such as school, organisations and care settings who have no legal rights in the

Forty surveys were completed successfully which resulted in very conclusive answers. Before conducting the survey all ethical guidelines were followed: a disclaimer was placed at the start of the survey informing participants that all information will remain confidential; the participants privacy will be respected; there will be no lasting harm and the participants will know this is entirely voluntary as the participant has the freedom to refuse or withdraw at any time without

Informed consent is a method that was established to protect human participants. Bertha Schrems discusses the importance of informed consent in her article “Informed consent, vulnerability and the risks of group-specific attribution”. Research participants are sometimes threatened by abuse or exploitation and the possibility of harm through research. To

Bell (2005) mentioned that ethical research involves acquiring informed consent of people to be interviewed, questioned, observed or taken materials from and reaching to an understanding of how the data will be used and analysis will be reported and published. In guiding the activities of researchers, Denscombe (2010) described three ethical; “protection of participants’ interest”, “avoiding deception or misinterpretation” and “informed consent of participants”.

The Belmont Report establishes ethical standards for researchers seeking to involve human subjects (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1979). Among these standards is respect for persons- the right of people to be treated as autonomous agents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1979). Privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality (PAC) fall under this standard (Farrimond, 2013). In research studies, privacy refers to an expectation that access to participants ' information will be limited to those that have a legitimate right to it (Farrimond, 2013). It is also expected that reasonable steps will be taken to prevent unauthorized access to the information. To expand on privacy, most studies allow anonymity- the removal of names and other identifying information (addresses, job titles, age) to protect the identities of participants (Farrimond, 2013). Anonymity increases the likelihood that potential subjects will agree to participate in a study, as they feel more comfortable disclosing information that may otherwise result in negative consequences (Farrimond, 2013). Confidentiality ensures study participants that their information will not be shared beyond the scope of the study (Farrimond, 2013).

First and foremost the participants must be voluntary. In all ethical research when conducting research there must be willing participants. Research has shown that when participants volunteer they shouldn’t feel coerced, threatened or bribed into participation. Second, informed consent must be described at the onset of the study. Participants are told about the procedures and informed of any potential risks; there also should be documented in written form, ensuring the participant know about the experiment and can make informed decisions about whether or not they want to participate. Meanwhile, this can present problems in cases where telling the participants the necessary details about the experiment might unduly influence their responses or behaviors in the study. However, it is stated in this article which allows in certain instances, but only if the study would be impossible to conduct without the use of deception, if the research will provide some sort of valuable insight and if the subjects will be debriefed and informed about the study's true purpose after the data has been collected searchers Must Maintain Participant Confidentiality. Finally, while guidelines can provide some ethical standards for research, each study can pose different unique challenges. Likewise, confidentiality is a part of any ethical research. Participants need to be guaranteed that

Participants must be guaranteed that identifying information and individual responses will not be shared with anyone who is not involved in the study. The researcher is responsible for protecting the confidential communications between themselves and the participants; this includes papers or grants submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records. For the proposed study it would include surveys, questionnaires, and background information that may have been obtained prior to beginning the study (Ambery, & Steinbrunner, 2007).

Privacy and confidentiality: The data for this project are being collected anonymously. Neither the researchers nor anyone else will be able to link your responses to you. Results of this study may be published or presented at professional meetings, but the identities of all research participants will remain anonymous.

In order to provide respect for potential and enrolled subjects through proper confidentiality, I will make sure to respect the privacy of the human subjects and will keep their private information confidential. Using the same process as the informed consent, I will do the interviews and questionnaires in a private place. The names of participants will never be used, and an identification number will be used for each participant to identify them. Some questionnaires will be done on paper while others, as well as the interviews, will be completed using a computer to store the responses. All of this information will be kept confidential, and only I will have access to it. I will provide a summary of the results from my practicum experience to the three clinics where I rotated and did my research project. These results will be available for the participants to have access to what was learned from the research.

any professional capacity. Any member of teaching staff, including TA's may have access to private,

Ethical issues may occur during the multiple phases of qualitative research, such as during the initial phases of planning the study, implementation, data analysis, interpretation and evaluation (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). In qualitative research, some ethical issues that should be considered and are as follows: Competence boundaries, worthiness of the project, informed consent, benefits and costs, honesty and trust, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity, intervention and advocacy, research integrity and quality, ownership of data, use and misuse of results, and conflicts, dilemmas and trade-offs (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). Establishing trustworthiness of the research project can address many of the ethical issues as stated above (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). In addition, qualitative research deals with human situations, therefore, it is essential that the researchers ensure the anonymity and confidentiality of the study participants (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). Furthermore, the researchers must inform the participants of how the data will be used and how the participants’ identities will be protected (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). Qualitative researchers have a duty to use data the way it has been specified by the participants (Schmidt & Brown, 2015). They must also be true to the data when reporting the findings and also have an open mind when analyzing the data (Schmidt & Brown,

Informed consent is the most important thing for sociologists undertaking qualitative research. Informed consent is when multiple conditions are met, these conditions are that an individual or a group of individuals must give their formal acknowledgement and permission to start a relationship with a sociologist who is doing qualitative research, secondly the individuals have to be a person or a group of people who are reciprocal in the relationship, linking to the second point is the last which is that an acceptable level of maturity has to be reached by both groups to create a reciprocal relationship between the two parties (Miller, Frank et. al, 2009, 4-9). Specifically in the Pacific if these criteria are not met information can become affected, when a special relationship where intimate details can be shared and not be betrayed

Ethics are moral principles, which assist researchers in fulfilling their responsibilities; by defining acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Many formal ethical guidelines, such as United States Belmont Report (1988) and UK’s Research Ethics Framework (ESRC), have been developed for research involving human participation. (Lindorff 2007) The aim of ethical guidelines is to aid researchers in striking a balance between achievement of research objectives and protection of subjects’ rights and privacy. (Bulmer 2008)

Whose behavior the guidelines [Institutional Review Board (IRB) Best Practices in the Review of Social and Behavioral Research] seek to regulate, the mere existence of another document trying to get right the vexing question of how to assure the proper ethical conduct of qualitative researchers through organisational oversight is a symbol and symptom of a deep misunderstanding of the realities of ethnographic research and an even deeper