Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity
The Dutch Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity outlines the principles a good researcher must adhere to. These include honesty, diligence, transparency, independence, and responsibility. The code also contains 61 standards that researchers must comply with throughout the entire process, from the research design to the communication of its results.
Principles of Ethical Data Collection
- Does no harm. Respects the privacy and anonymity of respondents and prevents physical and emotional harm, the risk of grievances, and reputational damage. This is particularly important in research methods that use visual outputs or written text.
- Is independent and impartial. The research must be objective, without any form of conflict of interest.
- Is of high quality and integrity. All data must be used for a purpose and collected in accordance with good research practices and sector standards.
- Uses informed consent. Everyone sharing their data knows the purpose of the collection and what will be done with it and participates voluntarily without any form of coercion.
- Recognizes ownership and copyrights. This factor must be considered when producing outputs with a research goal in mind, for example in Arts-Based Research (ABR) where anonymity is required.
- Complies with data privacy laws. Read more below.
The Data Ethics Canvas by the Open Data Institute provides more insight into the limitations in your data (and their implications), minimizing harm, rights and ownership of data, and openness and transparency.
Want to work with data yourself? The Taskforce Audience Data developed a handy step-by-step guide for using audience data.
Protecting Data Privacy
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the strictest personal data protection regulations in the world. You've probably heard of it in relation to what it means for your communication with stakeholders. But the regulation also outlines how we should collect primary data for evaluations or impact analyses, especially when it comes to personal data. For anonymous data collection, where data cannot be traced back to the respondent, the GDPR does not apply. However, it is still good practice to adhere to it in case a respondent accidentally provides personal information.
The GDPR affects:
- The tools you use for data collection
- The privacy statement respondents must agree to
- What you can do with the data
- How you store the data you collect and how long you may keep it
DEN researched what the GDPR means for working with data. Read here how to work GDPR-compliantly.
Useful Information Sources
Below are some resources where you can read more about GDPR and data collection. Are you unsure about using data? Always seek legal advice or consult an expert.
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