AUSTRALIA: Internet changes rules for researchers

With social scientists increasingly using the internet for research and observation, new methodological guidelines need to be developed, argues Emma Beddows in the latest edition of the International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society. Beddows, of Swinburne University of Technology, examines issues and concerns associated with internet-based research and calls for renewed university guidelines to tackle them.

Beddows seeks to identify significant methodological issues encountered in a qualitative case study conducted by her in 2007 titled "Fan Fiction Online: Celebration or appropriation?" as well as by other researchers attempting similar work. She argues that, due to unique spatial arrangements online and new modes of social interaction, the internet brings with it a number of complex methodological issues.

Among the advantages of internet-based research, Beddows writes, are "the ease with which researchers can recruit and communicate with potential participants, and the inexpensive and practical means through which they can manage complex research scenarios". However the internet as a research tool has also proven problematic on several fronts including concerns about the accuracy of data obtained, and the ethics surrounding its collection.

One major issue is difficulty for researchers to generalise from an internet sample to a wider population, as internet users may not accurately represent their demographic. Also, qualitative research involving computer-mediated interaction between participants and researchers excludes non-verbal codes that "contribute significantly to the richness and depth of communication". Further, Beddows points out, there can be privacy-related concerns with internet-based research, as well as issues regarding informed consent.

Beddows believes it is vital that Institutional Review Boards, which are responsible for formulating and approving ethical and methodological guidelines with which researchers should align their practice, catch up with technology. "The concern for internet research is that regulations are firmly rooted in face-to-face settings and the literature culture of paper and print. In order to relieve the problems associated with online research, there needs to be an effort made to develop methodological guidelines that take into account both the unique nature of the internet, and its relationship to the physical world," Beddows concludes.
Full article available on the iJets site