QUESTION
Describe your assignment: Why are anonymity and confidentiality critical criteria in all research projects
SOLUTION
Why are anonymity and confidentiality important criteria in all research projects?
The right to privacy is an inherent right of all human beings. Research projects involving direct interaction with participants and their families involve an intrusion into their private lives. Thereby it becomes very important that their personal lives are protected from public discussion or criticism. Data Protection Act requires anonymity and confidentiality to be maintained wherever possible (Grinyer,2002).
Anonymity and confidentiality are two important criteria in all research projects to protect the participants and their personal lives from getting affected adversely.Sometimes the interviewees are couples or family members, in such case it is important to protect a person’s views or information from the other half or other family members to ensure personal relations are not hampered. Many times it is about the question of ensuring safety of participants who have taken personal risks for the researcher. Protecting the identities of the participants is important when these people are living in politically- or religiously-unstable conditions (Mookherjee et al.).
The principles of anonymity and confidentiality become much more significant when the people concerned are marginalized and stigmatized (Esterhuizen, Naguib and May-Chahal). Disclosure of identities or confidential information in such cases may lead to further marginalization of these people. A number of other problems may also arise like loss of job, disbanding from community and discrimination due to disclosure of information regarding medical problems or sexual orientation (Esterhuizen, Naguib and May-Chahal).
Principles of anonymity and confidentiality are important for the researcher as well to gain trust of participants.Without promising anonymity and confidentiality, the participants may not be willing to contribute.
References:
Esterhuizen, L., Naguib, S. and May-Chahal, C. ‘Vulnerable People and Groups’. inSocial Science Research Ethics. Viewed on 14 May 2012 <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/researchethics/4-4-anonconf.html>
Grinyer, A. (2002) Social Research Update. University of Surrey. Viewed on 14 May 2012 <http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU36.pdf>
Mookherjee, N., Milligan, C., Nahman, M. and Caplan, P. ‘Global Context’.inSocial Science Research Ethics. Viewed on 14 May 2012 <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/researchethics/3-2-dutyofcare.html>
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