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Birkbeck has an ethics policy that must be followed when students wish to use human subjects in studies. This involves full disclosure to the subjects about the nature of the study, privacy protection and approval by the college ethics committee for the commencement of the study.
Consulting the documentation associated with an application to the ethics committee raised some doubt as to whether the survey contained within this reasearch was of the kind that required approval. We therefore sought clarification on this issue, which, unfortunately, was not forthcoming. On an informal basis we were advised that approval by the ethics committee was not necessary because our survey dealt with opinions rather than personal information.
However, this research has proceded as if it were subject to the conditions within the college’s ethics policy, particularly with regard to privacy of the individual respondents. The only personal identifying information the researchers hold regarding the respondents are the email addresses, given voluntarily, of approximately 25% of those completing the survey.
The conditions on holding such information are that this will not be disclosed to others outside the research team, and that the email addresses will only be used to notify the participants that the results of the research have been published, and where such may be found.
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