Legal Requests/Requirements for Confidential Data From Research Field Notes
From The Embassy of Good Science
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Legal Requests/Requirements for Confidential Data From Research Field Notes
What is this about?
A researcher was interviewing teenagers about their sexual activity, drug use, smoking and their general problems, when a nearby store was robbed. Police claimed that two of the suspects often visited the community centre in which the researcher was conducting her interviews and requested access to the research notes after having obtained a court order. The case study asks whether the researcher should protect her sources and risk jailtime for "contempt of court" or turn over the notes to the police.
