Paper Info
Title
Situational Ethics: Re-thinking Approaches to Formal Ethics Requirements for Human-Computer Interaction
Abstract
Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate -- a common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging lab-based evaluations, and ethnographic observations.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1145/2702123.2702481
CHI
Keywords
Field
DocType
vulnerable populations,research protocol,field studies,user interfaces,ethics,situational ethics
Formality,Information ethics,Computer science,Formal ethics,Human–computer interaction,Situational ethics,Ethical code,Field research,Qualitative research,Applied ethics
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
27
1.20
15
Authors
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cosmin Munteanu121742.79
Heather Molyneaux2566.65
Wendy Moncur327522.59
Mario Romero4482.31
Susan O'Donnell5416.79
John Vines660955.33