Internet Research Ethics: Discourse, Inquiry, and Policy

互联网研究伦理：话语、探究和政策

• 批准号: 0646591
• 负责人: Elizabeth Buchanan
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-15 至 2010-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0646591&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Internet; Research; Ethics; Discourse; Inquiry

This project, funded through the Ethics and Values Studies component of the Science and Society Program will involve interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research. The principal investigators will elevate the discussion surrounding Internet Research Ethics (IRE) to new levels benefiting researchers from all disciplines, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and policy makers. Specifically, they will conduct exhaustive survey research studies that contextualize IRE and establish benchmarks in the field by using survey and qualitative research methodologies to determine if Institutional Review Boards within Carnegie-designated Doctoral/Research Universities Extensive institutions have policies and procedures and/or guidelines for reviewing Internet-based research protocols; and by providing best practices guidelines and policies for IRBs, researchers, policy makers, and administrators in the area of IRE through workshops and presentations and online educational modules. The PIs will also develop and provide a comprehensive online clearinghouse of educational and bibliographic resources for theoretical and practical aspects of IRE. The directors will develop a mixed-method survey for IRB administrators and/or board members at Comprehensive Doctoral Institutions. The survey will ask about the percentage of IRE-related protocols in general, and in particular, about working knowledge of IRE; ask for policies and procedures for IRE protocols; explore issues such as privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, and identity, and issues of public and private Internet spaces will be explored. Adherence to human subjects protections regulations will be analyzed and contextualized within the body of IRE literature and research. Both closed-ended and open-ended questions will be used to obtain data. The data will be compiled and analyzed for trends and best practices, through both statistical tests and qualitative evaluation of the open-ended questions. This mixed-method approach will provide the most comprehensive review of the state of IRBs and IRE. An exhaustive survey of IRB policies and procedures on IRE has not yet been conducted; the novelty of this project is significant and a need for the research is evident. The intellectual merits of the proposed project relate to the philosophical approach of using applied ethics to address pressing, real-world issues in human subjects protections, and continuing to develop practical resolutions not only to first-order ethical issues, but also to second-order issues of interdisciplinary collaborations. Especially as the Internet becomes increasingly interwoven into more and more of the everyday fabric of our lives, such research will certainly expand and contribute new and important insights in a variety of disciplines. The project will contribute to the crucial reflection and debate needed to pursue such research in ethically responsible ways. The project is designed to effect a broad impact on applied ethics, including the fields of Information and Computer Ethics; the real-world practices of researchers from a variety of disciplines; the practices and policies of IRBs seeking to ensure human subjects protections in novel environments and contexts; and thereby to the quality, both in terms of information learned and ethical norms of human subjects protections maintained, of the exponentially expanding fields of Internet research.

该项目由科学和社会计划的伦理和价值观研究部分资助，将涉及跨学科和跨学科的研究。主要研究人员将把围绕互联网研究伦理(IRE)的讨论提升到新的水平，使所有学科的研究人员、机构审查委员会(IRBs)和政策制定者受益。具体地说，他们将进行详尽的调查研究，以确定机构审查委员会在卡内基指定的博士/研究型大学内是否有审查基于互联网的研究协议的政策、程序和/或指导方针；并通过讲习班和演讲以及在线教育单元，为机构间研究机构、研究人员、政策制定者和管理人员提供信息和通信技术领域的最佳做法指导方针和政策，从而将信息和通信技术研究所与该领域的基准联系起来并建立基准。投资促进机构还将开发和提供一个教育和书目资源的综合网上信息中心，以了解信息与技术研究所的理论和实践方面的情况。董事们将对综合博士院校的IRB管理人员和/或董事会成员进行一项混合方法的调查。调查将询问总体上与IRE相关的协议的百分比，特别是关于IRE的工作知识；询问IRE协议的政策和程序；探索隐私、匿名性、保密性和身份等问题，以及公共和私人互联网空间的问题。将在IRE文献和研究的主体中分析遵守人类主体保护条例的情况并将其联系起来。封闭式和开放式问题都将被用来获取数据。将通过对不限成员名额问题进行统计测试和定性评估，对数据进行汇编和分析，以确定趋势和最佳做法。这一混合方法将对IRBs和IRE的状况进行最全面的审查。尚未对IRB关于IRE的政策和程序进行详尽的调查；这一项目的新颖性很大，显然需要进行这项研究。拟议项目的学术价值涉及使用应用伦理学来解决人类主体保护中紧迫的现实世界问题的哲学方法，并继续制定切实可行的解决办法，不仅解决第一级伦理问题，而且还解决跨学科合作的第二级问题。特别是随着互联网越来越多地融入我们日常生活的方方面面，这样的研究肯定会在不同的学科中扩展和贡献新的重要见解。该项目将有助于以道德上负责任的方式进行这类研究所需的关键思考和辩论。该项目旨在对应用伦理学产生广泛影响，包括信息和计算机伦理学领域；不同学科的研究人员在现实世界中的做法；机构间研究机构寻求确保在新环境和新背景中保护人类主体的做法和政策；从而影响指数级增长的互联网研究领域的质量，无论是在学习的信息方面还是在保护人类主体的伦理规范方面。