Informed Consent as a Component of Online Research Ethics -- The Perspective of the Participants

Abstract

The paper discusses informed consent as a component of online research ethics. It begins from the analysis of understanding, from the preconditions on which the realization depends, and from the difficulties that accompany the application of the informed consent in practice. The aim of the empirical part of the research is to determine the characteristics of the process of obtaining the informed consent in online research and to examine the factors on which they depend. The sample included 153 teachers. Data were collected with the survey-type questionnaires and with the descriptive assessment scales. For data processing, besides the frequencies and percentages, the χ2 test and Kramer ‘s V correlation coefficient were performed. The results indicate that most of the respondents have had experience of giving informed consent in online surveys in which they have participated so far; that the text often contained information about the purpose and the goal of the research, apart from the tasks of the respondents in the research; that the majority of the teachers evaluate the content of the text as understandable and useful; and also that most of the characteristics depend on the environment of the school in which the teachers are employed. The results are discussed in the context of the possibility of improvement of the process of obtaining informed consent from the respondents in the online survey.

Keywords

• ethical issues of research
• informed consent
• online research