Dilemma 4: How do I manage research ethics when my data may be reused by other researchers?

This section of the guide will introduce the key ethical debates associated with the archiving and reuse of qualitative multi-media digital data. The contemporary social science research landscape is fertile with ethical debates, codes of conduct and regulations. The substance of these has emerged from a combination of legal requirements and discipline specific values. Gaining ethical approval from committee before research begins has become increasingly complex as our codes of conduct are refined and our awareness of the issues becomes more astute. Contrary to these well established mechanisms there has been little debate or development of ethical best practice in relation to the storage and reuse of qualitative multi-media data. The salient issues to be discussed in this section include:

• Continuation of participant protection beyond original purpose
• Multi-media data integrity
• Restriction of access to archived data

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