1. GS/PPAL 6200 3.00 Section N Research Methods and Information Systems
January 24, 2017
Professor Brenda Spotton Visano
Office: 130 McLaughlin
Voice Mail: (416) ext

2. Agenda Review of last class Ethics in Information and Research
Information and research ethics
Brief guide to ethical decision making
Definition and scope of research ethics
Questions to guide class discussion of readings

3. Review of Last Class Introduction to Research Methods
Criteria for Evaluating Research (reliability, validity: construct, internal, external)
Research Orientation (Methods – qualitative: interviews, textual analyses; quantitative: statistical analyses, simulations)
Research Design (experimental, cross-section, longitudinal, case study)
Checklist for Reviewing Research

4. Information Accessibility
“Privacy and smartphone apps: What data your phone may be giving away”
(CBC Marketplace)
Thanks to Shovan Chakraboorty for bringing this news clip to our attention.

5. Information Ethics
Information ethics: Standards governing the organization, distribution, and use of information.
Questions to motivate thinking about public information:
Why are health records confidential?
Why are tax documents not made public?
What information should be publicly available; what should require individual’s consent?
“Only people with something to hide object to publicly available personal information.”

6. Defining the Boundaries of Information Privacy and Access
What are the benefits of the “public record” and publicly available information?
Class suggestions…
What are the negative consequences of publicly available personal information?

7. Guide to Ethical Practices in Distribution and Use of Information
Philosophical criteria: is it morally right/wrong in and of itself? Is it morally right/wrong in consequence? Are individual rights negotiable when confronting collective rights?
Practical criteria: What are the 7 principles of “Privacy” and the 7 principles of “Access” to information according to Ontario’s Privacy Commissioner?

8. Research Ethics
Research ethics: Standards governing the creation of information – the planning, conduct and reporting of research
Includes:
Protection of human and animal subjects
Biosecurity
Collection, use and interpretation of data
Reporting and reviewing research plans, findings
Relationships between researchers (authorship, collaboration), researcher and subject/those affected by research, conflicts of interest, whistleblowing
Means of responding to disputes
The Tri-Council Framework is concerned with which ethical issues in the conduct of research? How does the York University Senate Policy on Research Involving Human participants relate to the Tri-Council Policy?

9. Level 2: Critical Understanding
Compare and contrast the Tri-Council Framework with the Privacy and Access Principles. Does or can the Tri-Council Framework address issues related to the networking of large-scale data systems?

10. Level 3: Application
As a researcher, you need to conduct in-person interviews. How will you ensure adherence to the Principles of Consent (Ch. 3, Tri-Council Policy Statement). How will you ensure Privacy in the release of your results?

11. Level 4: Analysis of complexities and controversies
You want to research a highly controversial issue…if you fully disclose the research to research participants you fear their responses will be altered to mask the behavior you are researching. What should you tell the participants?
Your research involves interviewing public servants. In the process of those interviews, you discover that some have been falsifying signatures to advance public security. As a result of your report, which discloses the practice but retains confidentiality of the respondents, senior officials demand you reveal the confidential respondent information so that the respondents can be brought to justice for their illegal actions. How do you reconcile the conflicting principles (of privacy and publicity) when both are designed to protect the public good?

12. New Research Review Process
For a presentation on the revised Ethics Protocols and Research Review Process, see the slide deck posted at: