Ethical Considerations

Unleashing the ethical avalanche 🔭, such as research integrity, informed consent, and anonymity when harnessing Reddit data.

🧠 Research Integrity

Academic research involving human subjects demands adherence to ethical principles like informed consent, opt-outs, and the “do no harm” mantra. Yet, IRBs clash over whether public social media data constitutes human subject research ^{[1], [2], [3], [4]}.

📝 Informed Consent

While Reddit’s User Agreement grants broad rights, it doesn’t cover third-party research use. Researchers should (ideally) obtain explicit user consent before using public Reddit content, upholding ethical standards. But what about Hawthorne Effect?

🕵️‍♀️ Anonymity

Scraping certain Reddit forums could expose highly sensitive personal data, requiring controlled access and anonymisation. Although Reddit deems public information accessible, users often expect privacy and anonymity.