The Next Step for Research Review Boards

When it comes to data collection in scientific research, there are a lot of processes that a researcher needs to go through before they can collect data. They need to carefully devise surveys, plan their research, and – perhaps most importantly – show that they are going to protect the privacy of their respondents. Many research surveys deal with sensitive information about people, and that information needs to be protected.

However, Internet research poses a unique problem. For those that do research online, it is not only the way they handle the data after the survey has been completed that is important. It is also the security of the way they collect the data, and where they decide to store the information online.

Most research review boards are ill equipped to respond to problems with internet security, because understanding that security is usually part of a programmer’s job, not a researcher’s job. These are generally trained researchers, not trained programmers.

But there is no denying that improper use and handling of Internet surveys put that information at risk strictly because they are taking place online. In addition, even if the data collection was completed using offline (non-online survey) means, how the data is stored still poses a problem. These days people back up their data on a variety of websites, and if these websites can be hacked or very little care is being taken with passwords and login access, the data will not be secure enough to guarantee protection of the respondent’s security.

Once again, most research review boards are ill prepared for some of these issues.

These issues with security are both an ethical problem and a legal problem, and while it is the researcher’s goal to ensure that all information is taken care of, the review boards are designed to make sure that the researcher is using checks to make sure that respondent data is accounted for. So one of the next steps for research boards is going to be finding a way to integrate knowledge of programming and data security into their analysis. While previous methods of protecting data were adequate, the ability to ensure that your respondents’ data is protected should be considered a vital part of your research, so teaching research review boards how to adequately judge Internet security is very important.