Question

Which of the following methods could be considered a "best practice" in terms of informing respondents how their answers to an on-line survey about personal information will be protected?
A. Respondents are informed that investigators will try to keep their participation confidential; however, confidentiality cannot be assured.
B. Respondents are informed that a research assistant will transfer all the research data to a password-protected computer that is not connected to the internet, via a USB flashdrive. The computer is located in a research team member's office.
C. The investigator uses the informed consent process to explain her institution's method for guaranteeing absolute confidentiality of research data.
D. The investigator uses the informed consent process to explain how respondent data will be transmitted from the website to his encrypted database without ever recording respondents' IP addresses, but explains that on the internet confidentiality cannot be absolutely guaranteed.

Answer 1

The “best practice” for this case is that the investigator uses the informed consent process to explain how respondent data will be transmitted from the website to his encrypted database without ever recording respondents' IP addresses, but explains that on the Internet confidentiality cannot be absolutely guaranteed. This is one of the essential ethics for conducting internet-based research.

 

EXPLANATION:

Five online research methods are widely used by scholars because of the precise nature of the offered results:

1. Online focus group

Online focus group is a subgroup of online research techniques. Online focus groups is the method that is typically used for consumer research, a B2B research, and political research. A moderator is appointed to do and oversee a focus group that invites pre-selected participants and meets the requirements representing certain areas of interest to be part of this focus group at a certain time. Respondents are usually given an incentive to be a part of the discussion which is usually one hour and 90 minutes.

2. Online interview

This method is very similar to a face-to-face interview. However, it differs in terms of the needed standard practices, comprehending with sampling and respondents. Online interviews are arranged using a variety of computer-mediated communications (CMC), basically, SMS or Email.  

On the foundation of response time for this interview, they are categorized into asynchronous and synchronous methods. Synchronous online interviews are taken through media such as online chat, where the responses are received in real-time whereas asynchronous online interviews are those that occur via Email where responses are usually not in real-time.  

Similar to that of face-to-face interviews, online interviews investigate respondents' thoughts and feedback on a certain topic to gain insight into their experiences, attitudes, or ideas.

3. Online qualitative research

In addition to online focus groups online and online interviews, there are a variety of aspects of online qualitative research. These aspects comprise mobile diaries, blogs, and communities. These methods support cost and time savings and are very convenient for scholars to collect information for their research topics.  

The sophistication level brought by online qualitative research methods is better than other traditional forms because respondents can be recruited from panels, existing databases, or can be added by doing surveys.

4. Online text analysis

This technique of analysis is an augmentation of existing text analysis since the 17th century which is a group of various online research examples that are used to gain insights from content which is available online. By utilizing this online research technique, scholars can explain the format of written, verbal or graphic communication.  

Categories such as paragraphs, web pages, sentences, pseudo sentences, documents, etc. It is usually used for quantitative research but for better text interpretation, scholars also use qualitative techniques.

5. Social network Analysis

Social network analysis is an emergent online research technique that is obtaining acceptance because of the increasing adoption of social networking devices. By doing social networks analysis, a scholar can map and measure relationships and flows between people, URLs, organizations, computers or groups using graph theory.  

For example, the newest meme culture has advanced a new social structure where related people are referred to as “memes” and "nodes" are "connection" between these nodes.

LEARN MORE

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, we recommend you to also take a look at the following questions:

• Which is an online research source that not considered reliable? brainly.com/question/11333105

• When conducting research online for an easy which tip should the researcher follow? brainly.com/question/12314449

KEYWORDS : Online Research Methods, Personal Information on Online Research

Subject  : Social Studies

Class  : 10-12

Sub-Chapter : Research Ethics

Answer 2

Answer:

D. The investigator uses the informed consent process to explain how respondent data will be transmitted from the website to his encrypted database without ever recording respondents' IP addresses, but explains that on the internet confidentiality cannot be absolutely guaranteed.

Explanation:

Keep in mind that breach of information during on-line survey could be the researcher's fault or subject's fault, depending on how they secure their internet connection.

- Method A is not suitable because of this phrase:   'confidentiality cannot be assured' .  This will make the subject thinks that the researchers are not taking responsibilities in protecting the information.

-Method B is not suitable because it create a physical location where people could come in and directly steal the data of all the subjects,

- Method C is not suitable because it does not educate the subjects with the possibilities that they can personally made the mistake that can cause the breach of information.

- Method D is the most suitable because it conveys that the research team is making their full efforts to ensure the anonymity of the subjects and also educate them regarding the possibilities of breach information from the subject's mistake. (it would be even better if the investigator advised the subjects to use trusted VPN services.)