While some academic circles do not agree with the tactic of internet research, the Internation Journal of Internet Research Ethics has elevated it into a study. It was a logical step to be made since,
with the emergence of Internet use as a research locale and tool throughout the 1990s, researchers from disparate disciplines, ranging from the social sciences to humanities to the sciences, have found a new fertile ground for research opportunities that differ greatly from their traditional biomedical counterparts. As such, “populations,” locales, and spaces that had no corresponding physical environment became a focal point, or site of research activity.
But don’t be intimidated; it’s not a philosophical approach of the matters. The IJIRE doesn’t publish only theoretical, but also practical articles, where case studies of online research are embraced.
The Journal covers a broad variety of questions, which rise out of the practice of internet research:
How is informed consent obtained? Is this really human subjects work? How do diverse methodological approaches result in distinctive ethical conflicts – and, possibly, distinctive ethical resolutions? What about privacy? How do researchers collaborating across diverse ethical and legal domains recognize and resolve ethical issues in ways that recognize and incorporate often markedly different ethical understandings? What about research on minors?
The constant transformation of the web along with the emergence of social networks provide constructive ground for analysis in the fields of privacy, ownership, legal issues, authorial ethics and anonymity.
Some of the subjects discussed in this semesters’ issue are:
- Ethical Approaches to Robotic Data Gathering in Academic Research
- Data as Representation: Beyond Anonymity in e-Research Ethics
- Creating a Web of Attribution in the Feminist Blogosphere
The journal is free to download and open to submissions.
Forgive me for using the Pownce buzz to get attention to this post, but I think IJIRE is really worth it.
Micha, thanks for the link!
