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Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines

Maura Conway Orcid Logo

Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume: 33, Issue: 2, Pages: 367 - 380

Swansea University Author: Maura Conway Orcid Logo

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Abstract

This article reflects on two core issues of human subjects’ research ethics and how they play out for online extremism and terrorism researchers. Medical research ethics, on which social science research ethics are based, centers the protection of research subjects, but what of the protection of res...

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Published in: Terrorism and Political Violence
ISSN: 0954-6553 1556-1836
Published: Informa UK Limited 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62901
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first_indexed 2023-03-10T11:36:21Z
last_indexed 2023-03-11T04:14:51Z
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spelling 2023-03-10T11:48:36.5331552 v2 62901 2023-03-10 Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines a85f1f79fa2041b345e47eb55062d1b7 0000-0003-4216-8592 Maura Conway Maura Conway true false 2023-03-10 LAWD This article reflects on two core issues of human subjects’ research ethics and how they play out for online extremism and terrorism researchers. Medical research ethics, on which social science research ethics are based, centers the protection of research subjects, but what of the protection of researchers? Greater attention to researcher safety, including online security and privacy and mental and emotional wellbeing, is called for herein. Researching hostile or dangerous communities does not, on the other hand, exempt us from our responsibilities to protect our research subjects, which is generally ensured via informed consent. This is complicated in data-intensive research settings, especially with the former type of communities, however. Also grappled with in this article therefore are the pros and cons of waived consent and deception and the allied issue of prevention of harm to subjects in online extremism and terrorism research. The best path forward it is argued—besides talking through the diversity of ethical issues arising in online extremism and terrorism research and committing our thinking and decision-making around them to paper to a much greater extent than we have done to-date—may be development of ethics guidelines tailored to our sub-field. Journal Article Terrorism and Political Violence 33 2 367 380 Informa UK Limited 0954-6553 1556-1836 Harm; wellbeing; deception; human subjects; review; best practice 24 3 2021 2021-03-24 10.1080/09546553.2021.1880235 COLLEGE NANME Law COLLEGE CODE LAWD Swansea University This work was supported by the European Union’s Framework Programme 7 (EU FP7) under Grant 312827 (i.e. VOX- Pol) and Swansea University’s Legal Innovation Lab Wales, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government under Grant 82123. 2023-03-10T11:48:36.5331552 2023-03-10T11:34:26.5818745 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law Maura Conway 0000-0003-4216-8592 1 62901__26804__c3207ab9e11d4eedadcfaede1042b178.pdf 62901_VoR.pdf 2023-03-10T11:36:49.3113092 Output 710367 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2021 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License true eng http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
spellingShingle Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
Maura Conway
title_short Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
title_full Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
title_fullStr Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
title_full_unstemmed Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
title_sort Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics: Researcher Safety, Informed Consent, and the Need for Tailored Guidelines
author_id_str_mv a85f1f79fa2041b345e47eb55062d1b7
author_id_fullname_str_mv a85f1f79fa2041b345e47eb55062d1b7_***_Maura Conway
author Maura Conway
author2 Maura Conway
format Journal article
container_title Terrorism and Political Violence
container_volume 33
container_issue 2
container_start_page 367
publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
issn 0954-6553
1556-1836
doi_str_mv 10.1080/09546553.2021.1880235
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law
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description This article reflects on two core issues of human subjects’ research ethics and how they play out for online extremism and terrorism researchers. Medical research ethics, on which social science research ethics are based, centers the protection of research subjects, but what of the protection of researchers? Greater attention to researcher safety, including online security and privacy and mental and emotional wellbeing, is called for herein. Researching hostile or dangerous communities does not, on the other hand, exempt us from our responsibilities to protect our research subjects, which is generally ensured via informed consent. This is complicated in data-intensive research settings, especially with the former type of communities, however. Also grappled with in this article therefore are the pros and cons of waived consent and deception and the allied issue of prevention of harm to subjects in online extremism and terrorism research. The best path forward it is argued—besides talking through the diversity of ethical issues arising in online extremism and terrorism research and committing our thinking and decision-making around them to paper to a much greater extent than we have done to-date—may be development of ethics guidelines tailored to our sub-field.
published_date 2021-03-24T04:23:17Z
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