Research Ethics Policy? (attn: Robin Linden)

This locked thread:
/120/ac/33728/1.html
and this quote:

make me ask, "we now have a research ethics policy?" Good!

After the last semester and all the hooplah from that, I know I appreciate Linden Lab having a policy that they require researchers to sign to do this sort of thing. It's another way of keeping the Metaverse that we build a safer place than the regular Internet.

QUESTION TO ROBIN:

Robin, can we SLrs get a link / copy of this policy posted? (Else, if I'm a dufus and it's already been posted, can someone provide the link, please?)

Thanks!

I'd like to see this, if only for curiosity's sake.

I was just about to start a thread about this...

Now I'm curious. Assume, for the moment, that I have no clue about the research ethics quaziwhatsits. If I, a longtime resident (middle-be, really), suddenly decide to start researching things without ever TELLING anyone I'm researching them, and then I publish my findings, is LL going to ban me for doing research without my signing something I didn't know existed?

If LL's going to -require- a research agreement, then LL should require ALL people to agree to it. Sorta like a research TOS.

I'm still not seeing why people are worried about research in SL. The people researching ask you for your permission, and tells you what information they want, and how they are going to us it. They aren't exploiting or aggressively taking information from you. If you are worried about them researching you, just decline them permission do so. I doubt there is one person doing the research that would argue or be upset with your decision.

Shouldn't **WE** have a say in that policy?

No.

Agreed

yeah that's totally cool if they do that. i think the big worry has been that there hasn't been any indication there is a policy to make them do that and the Linden response has basically been "um.....forgot to mention but for the last week there have been people researching you in the game. sorry." oh.....thanks for telling me. i think most people would like to be warned up front and told the the researchers will be following some rules. kinda like we're finally getting now.

and i can't really think of any convincing reason why we should have a say in the policy although it might be nice.

We should at least be able to see it, even if we have a say in it or not. I'm a paying customer, not a test subject for any person or university.

No, your not a test subject. Everyone has to stop thinking they are. Well I guess you can concider yourself one if you think someone asking you to take a servay is making you a test subject, even if you decline. The researchers are going by real life law and class rules more so then a game policy. I think the big problem is people think these students are just hiding behind a tree, watching and listening to you. It's not like that. And yes, I know for a fact its not like that, because they have to have your permission in order to research and record you, by law.

Hmmm... But how do you know that's what the Lindens are requiring of them, since NONE of us have SEEN this research policy?

I just want to see the thing. You talk law. Well the law also states that I cannot be forced to participate in said research unless I agree to it. If I can't even see the policy, how can I agree to it or not agree to it?

I'm 99.99% sure I'd be fine with it. The point is, these classes are already going on and the Lindens got caught with their pants down and are NOW saying, "Oh, yeah, you're being studied. Sorry, forgot to mention that. Ooops."

from thread:
/120/8b/33597/1.html

you're right. it's not like that. not usually. however, with undergraduates one is better safe than sorry. bad things in reserach can (and have) happened out of ignorance.

the problems that can occur due to research can be subtle and very unintentional. that's why it's good to know they researchers are being held to an ethical standard, and that someone is reveiwing their activities.

The research policy has nothing to do with you, unless you engage in academic research using the SL population. Besides which, the Lindens have been completely forthcoming about the presence of research groups in SL.

If you're opposed to participating in a study, then don't participate. That's the end of it. Even if the Lindens didn't have an academic research policy of their own, your private comments would be protected against use without your consent. Thus your privacy would not be infringed.

sometimes forthcoming... after the fact.

that may be true in the case of trained researchers most of the time (and i can say with certainty that is not a 100% thing). but particularly in the case of undergradutes, unintentionally unfortunate things can (and have) happen.

when i signed up for sl, it was not my impression that i would be a subject of anyone's academic project, paper, research, etc. while i do not think i will have much effect in this regard, i do think as a paying customer that i can register my dismay at the situation. and perhaps there are enough of us who do not wish to be intentional or unintentional guinnea pigs that ll will do something to reassure or accomodate.

lastly, in a study of/in a "public area" (and the consensus in academia and the sl forums does not exist wrt whether or not a cyberspace such as sl is "public" there is no real option to opt out except self-imposed exile from public spaces. and as a paying customer i find that quite unpalatable.

Sorry, but there's a flaw to your reasoning.

While you may assume that your statements are confidential, you are not assured of that unless you actually see the written and published report.

In other words, YOU have to follow the researcher to whose questions you answered.

Awhile back (cleans granny glasses), LL used to list these research questions IN the announcement forums with a follow-through link to the ONLINE questions that you answered.

You would then get a follow-up from that website showing the percentage of responses.

NONE of the latest research/class assignments have offered that.

Sorry, but your way of thinking is incorrect.

You want to know if your comments are taken the way that you intended -- ever hear of how easily miscommunications are in the chat world?

You, as a research subject, have a right to see how the researcher used your comments, your thoughts and your beliefs IF you participated in that research.

And you have the right to write the head of the department, the study instructor and even the university or medical institution if those comments were misinterpreted and if the researcher did not use them as intended.

Ever hear of the last presidential exit poll? You know, the one where the exiting voters said that Kerry was winning? Have you read WHY those exit-poll interviews were miscommunicated?

Unless the questions are worded correctly, there's a whole lotta room for mistakes.

As far as the population of SL is concerned, SL has an obligation to inform them (yes, INFORM them) of who/what/when/how and why research is being done in SL -- and they also need to inform the population that it's voluntary.

New legal cases are breaking everyday concerning the individuals on the internet. Right now, three teenagers have been charged with "cyberstalking" because of comments made on their high-school websites about their classmates. Imagine the F.B.I. coming into SL to find out about child porn, underage cybersex, and/or someone suing them for being a test subject on online research to which they were not advised.

Better add it to the TOS, and better get a way of communicating it to the community.

You are failing to see the point. I know, 100% garentee fact, as in no possible way that the class in question is going to do research on you without flat out telling you what they are doing, and your permission to do so. There is no "what if" about it. You reading a guideline that the lindens made isn't going to change anything at all. Don't act like some victum here, or crying out that you are paying customer. If you don't want to answer their questions, then don't. Thats it. I KNOW they won't study you without your permission, because information like this has very strict rules by teachers, schools, and of course, the law. It's not going to slip through the cracks that so and so researched you without permission.

Boy am I glad I agree with some longer established members of the community on this. I don't like the current method of us having to guess who's researching and who's not. Because the researchers currently in-game DID NOT identify themselves as such in every occaision.

fwiw, things like this slip through the cracks all the time.

You keep citing the great risks of research, always with a melodramatic flair. What exactly is the great risk? They aren't running an experimental tokamak with kittens strapped inside, they're making observations about interactions in SL and writing little papers about it. These aren't even grad-level papers, which will be published for posterity. These are papers which will almost certainly get shredded once the semester ends, or condemned to a life in the back of a file cabinet.

And if you are that woried about what you do in public, perhaps you should take a couple of minutes to reevaluate the difference between public and private space. I certainly don't do or say anything in public which I wouldn't want discussed. That's how life works.

innocuous questions can have measureable affects.

before administering a math test asking someone their gender is sufficient to reduce the score of most women. similarly, asking race/ethnicity before a math test reduces minority test scores. the harm from research can be that subtle, or can happen very much further down the road.

there are also cases where research passed the ethics committee at stanford and turned into research nightmare ethically speaking. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/relaged/970108prisonexp.html
and then there was the milgram experiment:
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/conscience.html

and consider medical research, up until fairly recently drugs approved for use on women and children were predominately tested on middle-aged white males. the research bodies don't always know what make sense.

cyberspace is a relatively new and the possible harm is not well known and may not be predictable.
what i do or do not do in public or private isn't really at issue here. it is my desire to not be reported on. i don't do anything in public that i am worried about getting to anyone through ordinary and expected means. that doesn't preclude me from valuing my privacy and disliking any researcher or student from recording my activities; to me that falls outside of what i would consider a reasonable expectation, and even if it were an unreasonable expectation, that still doesn't address the issue that it's my person that is being observed and recorded, and in that area there is a certain expectation of control - particularly when it involves educational activities, papers, research, etc.

No, sorry, end of debate.

I can't debate a man or woman who has never had anything slipped between their crack.

Wait! Let me do a research paper on it.

You see, cheating in college is up well over 40%. Colleges now have to take research papers and run them through a "check" program for... what's that word, you know -- when you cheat and use someone else's paper and research items without giving due credit... What's that word?

There are many, MANY researchers who do these types of information gathering without informing their subjects. Take a gander out on Google and read some of the posts about how they stealthed and received the information on which to base their hypothesis.

You see, unless it's tightly controlled (no pun intended here) -- that research conducted and the paper it's written on could simply be used to, um, wipe your crack.

It's one thing to be asked to be involved.

It's one thing to be given the results of the study.

It's another thing entirely when "oops, I forgot, but I don't have time to go back and do this again" mode kicks in and your inadvertent and innocently-made comments make it into a research paper without your knowledge.

Then again, it's another thing to live in a world where you blindly believe that your words are never taken out of context.

You honestly think that SL research by undergraduate students addressing mundane social concerns is comparable to the Millgram experiment? Or that the Stanford Prison experiment is going to be replicated by one of the freshman in these courses? These students are not engaging in psychological experimentation. They are not engaging in medical experimentation. There is no risk.

You raise some interesting points about the validity of testing, and the importance of not skewing the data with unintentional bias. You don't really cite any resources to prove the point, but that's not that big of a deal since that info does nothing to improve your case. If the students are unintentionally queering their results, it does not harm anyone in SL. For the most part, such bias will immediately reveal itself to any skilled researchers who review the work, unless the student neglects to discuss his experimental approach or engages in deception about it. In the former case, the student would be ripped apart for failing to do something so basic. In the latter, no ethical code of conduct is going to stop a rogue student from doing what he wants. If he's willing to violate academic honesty policies, then he's going to go in world and collect info, even if such research were explicitly banned in world.

(Now that you mention it, I would like to perform a modern day version of the Stanford Prison experiment here in SL. I strongly suspect that the interface of the internet filters human interaction. We engage in behavior online that we wouldn't otherwise engage in in real life. With our interactions filtered by the internet, I suspect that the guards would definitely be even more ruthless in their behavior. However, I also suspect that this very same filter would render the guards' intimadtion toothless. There is no physical harm which can be done to someone through the internet, and users are not dependent on the guards for the basic human necessities. In the end, I think people would engage in their roleplaying until it became inconvenient, and then they would return to their normal behavior.

Of course, now I need to test this hypothesis.

What's your point? If the student is going to flagrantly violate ethical standards of decency, then he's going to do it regardless of whether or not the Lindens have banned research or not. By providing a legitimate means of engaging in passive research, you allow the professor to moderate this student's explorations. If Professor Radiks suspects one of the Lil Radiks fabricated a conversation or that he used a conversation without permission, he is free to follow-up. This most certainly would not happen if people were collecting data on the sly.

You don't have to guess who the the classes are or what their last name is....its all posted in the linden forum.


all of you that are worried about what these classes might find out or know......I know more about you ....and I have pics