CS 6470: Short Summary of Ethics for Projects

1. Attend the ethics lectures
   • If you miss either lecture for any reason, you must watch the videos and meet with the TA before proceeding.
2. Complete the online human subjects certification for each team member (unless they already have this certification).
   • If you already have this certification, notify the TA and they will check that they can find it in the online system. If they can't, you'll need to provide proof or simply redo your certification.
3. If you are thinking about researching a sensitive topic (ex: cancer support), set up a meeting time with the professor to discuss it.
4. You may not begin your research until your site is approved by the professor or TAs, and all your human subjects' paperwork is in the system. If you have not been notified by email or a comment saying "approved" on your proposal, you have not yet been approved.
5. If your site is small, you need to contact the site leaders to ask permission before selecting the site. If the site is large, you do not. For example, you don't need to ask Blizzard if you can study World of Warcraft, but if you are studying a 200-person WoW guild you do need to ask permission of the guild leader.
   • Come talk to the instructor if you're not sure if you should ask.
6. Participant observation
   • Take detailed field notes on your experiences
   • Do not log otherwise ephemeral communication without consent
   • Describe who you are and what you're doing in online info about you (profile, decription, etc.)
7. Interviews
   • Confirm that the person is at least 18 years of age
   • You may NOT interview anyone under 18 years old
   • Ask them to complete the online consent form.
   • Explain what doing
   • Explain disguising
   • Make clear participation is voluntary and can stop at any time
   • Ask permission before turning on your tape recorder or video camera. Then turn it on. Then ask again, so you have permission on tape.
8. Do not annoy people in how you request participation/consent
   • Each person should see a request for an interview at most once.
   • Do not post publicly asking for interviews, because then everyone will see it and you can't ask again.
   • Keep a shared list of who you have asked for an interview, and make sure your teammate hasn't asked asomeone before you do.
9. Do not engage in any deception
   • Reveal who you are. Do not use any identity swapping, even if it is common on the site.
10. For your paper, follow disguising rules in 'names' paper.