The ethics of suicide research online: a consensual protocol for crowdsourcing-based studies on suicide

Autor: Yaakov Ophir, Yair Amichai Hamburger, Anat Brunstein Klomek, Yossi Levi-Belz, Gergö Hadlaczky, Elad Yom-Tov, Gil Zalsman
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-5 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2662-9992
DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02572-3
Popis: Suicide, one of the top causes of life lost in developed countries, is a major health problem, especially today, with the dramatic increase in mental health difficulties that was triggered during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Opportunely, the recent emergence of internet-based crowdsourcing platforms (e.g., Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) may accelerate research on suicide prevention, however, this type of suicide research online involves a difficult ethical challenge: how to keep participants’ safe without compromising their privacy. To address this ethical challenge, a consortium of experts from multiple research institutions was assembled. The consortium discussed the advantages and disadvantages for participants involved in crowdsourcing-based studies that address suicide risk. This discussion resulted in a consensual step-by-step protocol for researchers who wish to conduct suicide research online, using the crowdsourcing platforms. This article provides a detailed description of the protocol and outlines key ethical arguments that led to its formulation. Unresolved issues are discussed as well and other researchers are encouraged to implement the proposed protocol and suggest further improvements. It is our hope that the current protocol will facilitate the research on large and diverse populations online and thus contribute to the global efforts to reduce suicide rates around the world.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals