Wikimedia Research Network Privacy Policy

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The Wikimedia Research Network is guided by the principles in general acceptance regarding the ethical treatment of human subjects of research. The Belmont Report is the most commonly cited document by researchers in the guidance of behaviorial science research. Any research conducted must also adhere to the Wikimedia privacy policy.

• All data collection efforts will provide links to the WRN Privacy Policy.
• Researchers will respect the privacy of all subjects.
• No research will be conducted that could expose subjects to the risk of harm.
• No research data will be released in a format that could lead to the personal identification of any subject.
• Subjects will be informed of the goals, objectives, and purposes of the research before such time as any data is collected. See informed consent.
• Subjects will be assured in all research projects that their individual data is confidential and will not be stored with personal identifying information.
• Research results will only be released publically in an analyzed or aggregated format.
• Individuals participating in research projects will be notified when results are made public.

External Links

• National Cancer Institute Human Subjects Research Tutorial. This is a free, online course with information about the rights and welfare of human participants in research. Anyone who is concerned with the ethics and good practice of research involving human subjects can benefit from this online course. If you are not involved with research that involves medical treatment, you can still make use of this course for the historical introduction to human subjects research and its coverage of some of the general issues that pertain to all research involving human subjects (as outlined in the list, above).
• Ess, Charles, & the Association of Internet Researchers Ethics Committee, (2002), Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR? ethics working committee, Approved by AoIR? members, November 27, 2002. http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf
• Bruckman, A. (2002) 'Ethical Guidelines for Research Online', http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/ethics/.
• American Association for the Advancement of Science, 'Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects Research in Cyberspace' http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/intres/main.htm
• Azar, Beth, "Online experiments: ethically fair or foul?" APA Monitor, 31(4), April 2000, http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr00/fairorfoul.html (online only)
• Rafaeli, S. Sudweeks, F. Konstan, J. and Mabry, E. (1994-1998) APPENDIX (Ethics) ProjectH?: A Collaborative Quantitative Study, Of Computer-Mediated Communication, In Network and Netplay: Virtual Groups on the Internet, eds Fay Sudweeks, Margaret McLaughlin? and Sheizaf Rafaeli, MIT Press, Mass., pp. 265-281. http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/papers/techrep.html