Protection of Research Participants
From The Embassy of Good Science
Revision as of 10:20, 15 April 2024 by 0009-0001-9914-1502 (talk | contribs)
InstructionsProtection of Research Participants
Instructions for:TraineeTrainer
Goal
- Identify potential risks to human research participants within the context of citizen science.
- Understand strategies to minimize risks to research participants when practising citizen science.
Duration (hours)
2
For whom is this important?
What is this about?
Introduction
The term 'research participant' refers to an individual who voluntarily takes part in a research study, for example, a patient who takes part in a biomedical research study on new treatment methods or a community member who is interviewed by citizen scientists (like in this citizen science project on people living in London's neighborhoods). Research participants are essential contributors to scientific research, including citizen science projects, and their involvement can vary widely depending on the nature of the study. The rights and interests of research participants lie at the core of research ethics and the same time should apply to citizen science as well. However, citizen science raises new challenges in this regard for at least two reasons. First, there is a great variety of citizen science projects and many of them are conducted outside institutional settings which makes applying the traditional research ethics frameworks challenging. Second, citizen scientists might play different roles in the research, usually, they are involved only as citizen scientists, but in some cases (e.g., in biomedical citizen science research) they might play both roles - a citizen researcher and a research subject.1
Steps
