Typically, parents or other legal guardians are asked for an active declaration that the participation of their child in scientific research is informed and voluntary. However, asking for active parental consent leads to lower quality studies and passive parental consent might be preferable. In this study, we used an online survey in which parents…

The Nuremberg Code established ethics for the involvement of humans in research, initially in the area of health and medical research. While aspects of the code have been extended to the social and behavioral sciences, program evaluation does not always implement those policies, procedures, and protocols for protecting research participants,…

This case study describes a project that combined speculative fiction and co-design as qualitative social science research methods. It also describes how planned methods had to be adapted from physically co-present to online implementation and how we also had to change our expectations regarding the outcomes of the project. The combination of…

(1.1) Background: Research assent is a term used with those deemed vulnerable, for whom modifications and additional considerations are required when requesting their voluntary agreement to participate in research. (1.2) Methods: The authors' research experiences and inclusive research principles were integrated with a review of literature on…

Methods textbooks play a role in socializing a new generation of researchers about ethical research. How do undergraduate social research methods textbooks portray harm, its prevalence, and ways to mitigate harm to participants? We conducted a content analysis of ethics chapters in the 18 highest-selling undergraduate textbooks used in sociology…

Correspondence testing to research discrimination in the marketplace has become common and the use of internet applications has allowed researchers to send greater numbers of applications. While questions of research ethics always arise when planning a correspondence test, the issue receives relatively little attention in published correspondence…

The study of marginalia has not been widely discussed in social sciences research and occupies a marginal space in terms of methodological legitimacy. We highlight the value of paying attention to the ways in which participants "speak back" to the researcher. This paper draws on marginalia found in surveys written or drawn by young…

The notion of visual informed consent (VIC) is developed in the context of capturing on film the clarification of the purpose of data collection, the use of information obtained, and the rights, risks and benefits of participation on the one hand, and the registration of the participant's understanding of this and of given consent on the other.…

Experience has shown that the application of ethical guidelines developed for research in developed countries to research in developing countries can be, and often is, impractical and raises a number of contentious issues. Various attempts have been made to provide guidelines more appropriate to the developing world context; however, to date these…

In this article, we introduce participant viewpoint ethnography (PVE), a phenomenological video research method that combines reflexive, interview-based data with video capture of actual experiences. In PVE, participants wear a head-mounted camera to record the phenomena of study from their point of view. The researcher and participant then review…

This paper presents an innovative and effective approach for conducting surveys with preliterate adults in a context of limited infrastructure in post conflict Burundi, Africa. We conducted surveys with parents/carers of children with a disability and community members, as a component of mixed methods research with children and adults to provide…

This study describes the experiences of a researcher negotiating consent with people with learning disabilities to become participants in a research study. The study was about how the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) was applied to everyday decision-making in social care settings. However, before data collection could begin, the researcher had to follow…

This paper considers some of the ethical issues surrounding the study of malicious activity in social networks, specifically using a technique known as "social honeypots" combined with the use of deception. This is a potentially touchy area of study that is common to social and behavioral research that is well understood to fall within…

The perspective of "children as social actors" has created a field with new ethical dilemmas and responsibilities for researchers within the social study of childhood. According to experiences of conducting ethnographic video studies in mixed age kindergarten groups, this paper reflects on the processes of negotiating initial and ongoing…

On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) with the purpose of soliciting comments on how current regulations for protecting research participants could be modernized and revised. The rationale for revising the regulations was as follows: this ANPRM seeks comment on…