Heads up: some academic research taking place

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Some researchers from a UK university are going to be collecting posts from some boards on Mumsnet over the next few weeks. They will be looking only at posts published from this point onwards. Selected posts will be anonymised (ie usernames will not be stored anywhere), and all processes will be GDPR-compliant.

EDITED BY MNHQ: to be clear, NO private or back-end data is being shared with the researchers and they will have NO access to any extra information about users. They will only be analysing published posts, ie things that are already in the public domain.

The researchers will analyse the text of the anonymised posts as part of their study. The full text of these anonymised posts will not be reproduced in the study - no pieces of text that make you or your situation identifiable will be published.

Once the study is complete, the database containing the anonymised posts will be destroyed.

Obviously we'd love to tell you what the study is about - but we can't because it will skew the results. However once the research has been completed we'll share it with you and you can read all about it. The academics running the study are people we've worked with before, and the topic is one we think lots of MN users will agree is interesting and useful.

IMPORTANT BIT: if you DO NOT want your posts to be considered for inclusion in the research, please shout here on this thread or email us on [email protected]

And of course let us know if you have any questions and we'll see if we can answer them.

Thanks

MNHQ

I don't understand why people are opting out?

Speaking personally it's because when I agree to be a research subject, I always have full knowledge of what I am agreeing too, how the data / blood samples etc will be used, and what the purpose of the research is. Again, speaking personally I think it's a bit unethical to conduct research on people without their knowledge (I do realise this happens all of the time though)

Please opt me out.

Thank you.

Count me and any previous usernames out please.

I can see a problem if the researchers present the (anonymised) text as the words of parents. No-one knows if people posting here are really mothers or fathers or parents. Just what they claim to be.

Some are out and out trolls, fetishists and pervs. Some have been con artists. No-one knows the numbers. Could be significant.

I wouldn't let a student use it as a 'parent database'.

I would not like my posts to be included please.

Not because I'm worried about anything identifying me but because you're having to check back with the researchers over most of the questions being asked here and to be honest, I would have expected you to have nailed that sort of stuff down before agreeing to it so I don't trust that you understand yourselves what you are signing us as posters up for.

No thank you not me

I don't want my posts included either.

For clarification -

• you don't understand if the researchers have sought proper permission from their ethics committee and need to check this with them. You shouldn't really assume this

• You don't know if people will be contacted before their words are used in the study surely this would have been discussed in the basic process brief of the study? Have you even seen that?

• You haven't sought any veto powers which seems amateurish if your name is going to be connected to something which you've not really taken the time to fully understand.

• You don't know the status of the Opt-in / Opt-out legalities of this and they appear to not have explained that to you before hand. again, this is surely something both you and the researchers should be clear on

It just seems a bit "can we do this? Yeah sure why not!" which doesn't feel very professional or invoke any trust in what will happen with our data.

I do not want any of my posts included.

They got it past ethics because everything posted on MN is entirely open to public view anyway. It's like analysing the text of letters to the editors in a newspaper - you don't have to ask the letter writers (or even the newspaper) because they've already published their words. Or if I did a study counting whether more redheads use Liverpool Street station than Waterloo - I can just count them, I don't have to ask because I'm just watching them do something already entirely public. I know a lot of people like to think of MN as somehow private but it really, really isn't.

Well, if posters think that they're posting in a relatively safe closed group, perhaps in a moment of despair looking for a handhold, then ethically, the researchers need to take account of that. It's not acceptable to dismiss this precisely because mumsnet functions in exactly this way for many posters and to nit account for this is not really being ethical at all.

1. Content analysis is a very limited methodological tool that presents a decontextualised picture. It doesn't tell you why people opted to use language in the way they do. It merely imposes the researcher's meaning on that choice of language - a meaning that by its very nature is potentially unlikely to match the poster's motivation

for opting to express it in the way they did. In essence, its semantic naivety and really such research, without triangulated qualitative data, will reveal very little.

Please don't include my posts, thank you.

I also do not want to be included. Thank you.

Content analysis is a very limited methodological tool that presents a decontextualised picture. It doesn't tell you why people opted to use language in the way they do. It merely imposes the researcher's meaning on that choice of language - a meaning that by its very nature is potentially unlikely to match the poster's motivation for opting to express it in the way they did. In essence, its semantic naivety and really such research, without triangulated qualitative data, will reveal very little

Spot on and reflects what I said but more eloquently.

So let's say I ask to opt out. How does MN keep track of me if I NC?

Pretty much unethical to do research this way, surely ethical research has an element of agreeing to participate in the first place otherwise all research would be done this way?

Also, given the back history of access and potential stealing of data, I will opt out thanks.

I'llopt

Lots of people here clearly misunderstanding that when they post on Mumsnet, it becomes public property. No one needs your permission to use the words you post. There’s no need for ethics approval or participant approval in this context, Mumsnet are being courteous sharing that this is going on but they don’t need to. Analysing publically shared posts with no other context in an academic paper doesn’t put anyone at risk of data breeches.

Please don include me, thanks.

The researchers will analyse the text of the anonymised posts as part of their study. The full text of these anonymised posts will not be reproduced in the study - no pieces of text that make you or your situation identifiable will be published.

It’s anonymised excerpts of already anonymous posts.

Crikey. What do people expect to happen? It's a public forum, the data is already there. I just don't get the worries? The Daily Mail publishes stuff all the time without permission. At least this will be of some use?

In this current climate I DO NOT WANT TO BE INCLUDED.

Things like this make me aware of needing a reputable VPN. I do not want unknown people collecting data for unknown reasons wth access to behind the scenes data. No way.

Anything in the puclic domain they are welcome to but then they wouldn't need MN for that would they.

I don't mind at all.

I’d be interested to know how the researchers are going to be gathering their information - whether they’re going to be ctrl+F searching or whether they will have access to “back office” information e.g. name changes, IP addresses, or other private account details.

The Mail are lazy dicks for just trawling the forum but at least we know that’s all they have access to.

seafret it is the public posts - not anything behind the scenes....

I'm fine with it...

I’ll opt out, thanks.

It'll be TRAs. I'd bet my house on it.