Doing research online does not excuse a researcher from following ethical protocols or filing IRB applications.
Whether you are doing research online or researching online communities you need to think carefully about what you are planning to do. Ethical issues such as informed consent and protection of privacy arise quickly. Is the community public or private? Are you researching persons or avatars? Can documentation of consent be waived? Is there potential of harm to an individual or the community? Who needs to give consent? When planning to collect data from an internet website/chat room/forum, you need to check on the privacy policy and terms of service for that site. For example, Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities says "If you collect information from users, you will: obtain their consent, make it clear you (and not Facebook) are the one collecting their information, and post a privacy policy explaining what information you collect and how you will use it."
Here are some links that may help you develop ethical online research.
- APA Psychological Research Online: Opportunities and Challenges
- AOIR - Association of Internet Researchers Recommendations from the AOIR ethics working committee (pdf) 2002
- AOIR - Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0) (pdf) 2012
- CASRO - Council of American Survey Research Organizations CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research
- Bruckner, Amy Ethical Guidelines for Research Online
- Jacobson, D., (1999) Doing research in cyberspace (pp. 127-145). Field Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
- Armstrong, Rebecca. "Human Subjects Research and the Internet: Ethical Dilemmas." Office of Research Administration,University of Texas, Research Review, March, 2003
- Weeks, Matthew. (Department of Psychology, Centenary College of Louisiana. ) "Issues in Web-based Research" in Web-Based Research Tools. Project Created by Matthew Weeks and funded by Associated Colleges of the South.
- Eysenbach, G., & Till, J. (2001). Information in practice: Ethical issues in qualitative research on Internet communities. British Medical, 323, 1103-1105.
- Facebook as a Research Tool for the Social Sciences
- British Psychological Society (2013). Ethics Guidelines for Internet-mediated Research. INF206/1.2013. Leicester: Author.