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Our anonymous online research participants are not always anonymous: Is this a problem?
Author(s) -
Dawson Phillip
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.79
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-8535
pISSN - 0007-1013
DOI - 10.1111/bjet.12144
Subject(s) - anonymity , internet privacy , the internet , computer science , empirical research , online research methods , world wide web , data science , psychology , computer security , epistemology , philosophy
When educational research is conducted online, we sometimes promise our participants that they will be anonymous—but do we deliver on this promise? We have been warned since 1996 to be careful when using direct quotes in Internet research, as full‐text web search engines make it easy to find chunks of text online. This paper details an empirical study into the prevalence of direct quotes from participants in a subset of the educational technology literature. Using basic web search techniques, the source of direct quotes could be found in 10 of 112 articles. Analysis of the articles revealed previously undiscussed threats from data triangulation and expert analysis/diagnosis. Issues of ethical obliviousness, obscurity and concern for future privacy‐invasive technologies are also discussed. Recommendations for researchers, journals and institutional ethics review boards are made for how to better protect participants' anonymity against current and future threats.