1 / 19

Secondary Data Analysis: Ethical & Legal issues

Secondary Data Analysis: Ethical & Legal issues. Dr. Ursula Kilkelly & Dr. Deirdre Horgan, OMCYA Keeping Children Safe Summer School, 17 th September 2011, UCC. Outline of Presentation. Introduction and context Ethical and Legal issues of data re-use relevant at primary research stage

irving
Download Presentation

Secondary Data Analysis: Ethical & Legal issues

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Secondary Data Analysis: Ethical & Legal issues Dr. Ursula Kilkelly & Dr. Deirdre Horgan, OMCYA Keeping Children Safe Summer School, 17th September 2011, UCC.

  2. Outline of Presentation • Introduction and context • Ethical and Legal issues of data re-use relevant at primary research stage • Ethical and Legal issues when re-using data (at re-use stage) • Some scenarios to consider • Concluding comments

  3. Preliminary comments • Researchers are increasingly encouraged to locate, access and analyse data from data archives. • Data as a ‘global commodity’ (Parry & Mauthner, 2004) • Need to collaborate and share existing data. • Diminishing resources - can be a condition of funding. • Made possible by new information technologies • Case also needs to be made by researchers. • Relationship of primary to secondary use of data (eg can archived qualitative data be used to generate new substantive findings?)

  4. Benefits of secondary analysis • ‘Data archiving by enabling generations of researchers to collaborate across times as well as across discipline and geography, is a key part of this culture of collaborative inquiry.’ (Bishop, 2005: 335)

  5. Challenges of data re-use and archiving • No culture of data archiving in qualitative research. In fact, culture is to destroy data. • Because of the conditions under which qualitative data are produced, their reinterpretation at some later date can be viewed as problematic. • Relationship of trust – the construction of qualitative data is a joint endeavour between respondent & researcher, so both parties should retain ownership rights over the data?

  6. Informed Consent • Principle of voluntary informed consent. • Informed consent can be complex - new technologies, ongoing nature of the research process and decisions post data collection to archive or re-use the data • Difficulty in obtaining consent which is truly informed - developmental nature of qualitative inquiry (James & Platzer, 1999) • Notion of consent as a ‘once only’ permission has been challenged by the increased realisation of the reflexive nature of research and resulted in calls for ongoing or ‘process consent’ (Lawton, 2001)

  7. Informed consent • Little provision is made for this process in archiving. • ‘once the data are available as a secondary resource, the notion of process consent becomes redundant.’ (Parry & Mauthner,, 2004: 146) • Multiple and unknown uses to which an archived data set may be put. • Guarantees originally extended to participants may not obtain once control over the dataset is relinquished. • Right of withdrawal - must be extended to the data archive in view of the persistent accessibility and possible reuse of data in an archive.

  8. Data Protection Rules • Fair obtaining and processing (consent) • Specified purpose • No disclosure (unless compatible use) • Safe and secure • Accurate, up to date • Relevant, not excessive • Retention period • Right of access

  9. Rights and Obligations • Rights of data subject to control the use of their personal data (anything that can be linked to a living individual) • Obligations on data controllers (person who controls the contents and use of the data) and data processors (who processes personal data on behalf of a data controller) • Additional requirements relate to sensitive data (health, sexual life)

  10. Data Protection Requirements • ‘Fair Processing’ requires that the research participant is informed about • The purpose of data collection • The persons or categories of persons to whom the data may be disclosed • Any other information that is necessary to ensure the processing is fair. • For re-use, research participants should know the identity of the person re-using the data and the categories of data being used • Unreasonable or disproportionate exception

  11. Informed consent • Guidance from BSA/Data Protection Rules: • potential uses to which data might be put need to be discussed with research participants • restrict communication of records to audiences agreed with participants. (note IQDA) • Especially important with ‘vulnerable’ groups of research participants such as children – unable to fully appreciate immediate implications of participation or longer term implications of data archiving. • Danger of blanket/open consent.

  12. Confidentiality • Particular problems in qualitative research because of the personal, detailed and in-depth nature of the data. • Obligations under the Data Protection Directive and Acts 1988, 2003: concerned only with personal data that relates to identifiable living individuals (person must be reasonably identifiable) • Anonymising data is the safeguard but removal of key identifying information, archiving incomplete data sets and falsifying non-essential information may compromise the integrity and quality of the data. (Parry, 1997)

  13. Confidentiality • Researcher Anonymity: • Researcher revealing personal details can develop rapport, equalise the relationship and put participants at ease. • Knowing that data is to be archived may affect the choice of methodologies and how researchers interview (restrained, less forthcoming) and compromise the quality of the research. • Need to be aware of the impact on how data is collected when sharing later is an option.

  14. Data Protection: secondary use • Personal data for secondary use: seems likely that data can be used for a secondary purpose which was not first considered (‘Research’) • As long as secondary use cannot cause harm or distress to the data subject and safeguards his/her rights • Results of the secondary research must not be identifiable.

  15. Conflicting ethical requirements • Funding body - may require data be made available for archiving. • Research institution - ethical requirements often motivated by concern to avoid litigation. • Legal requirements. • Disciplinary sensitivities (Carusi & Jirotka, 2009)

  16. Scenarios: • 1. Ethical/legal considerations when doing a piece of primary research • 2.Ethical/legal considerations when doing a piece of secondary research (reusing your own data) • 3.Ethical/legal considerations when doing a piece of secondary research (reusing others’ data)

  17. Concluding comments • Guidelines and laws will not provide all the answers and only ever provide a framework within which these dilemmas can be resolved. REC approval essential part of this process.

  18. Concluding comments • Disciplinary bodies, funding agencies and data depositories should: • Debate the practical, legal, ethical challenges and limitations of archiving and re-using qualitative data. • Draw on the example and experience of disciplines such as oral history to develop guidelines. • Incorporate archiving policies and practices as part of disciplinary training and socialisation for undergraduate and graduate students.

  19. Reading • Parry, O. & Mauthner, N.S. ‘Whose Data Are They Anyway? Practical, Legal and Ethical Issues in Archiving Qualitative Research Data’ Sociology, 2004, 38 (1): 139-152, Sage. • Carusi, A. & Jirotka, M. ‘From data archive to ethical labyrinth’ Qualitative Research, 2009, 9 (3) 285-298. • Corti, L. & Thompson, P. ‘Secondary analysis of archived data’ Chapter 21 in Seale, C. (2004) Qualitative Research Practice, Sage. • Website of the Data Protection Commissioner (dataprotection.ie)

More Related