GDPR
GDPR regulations pertain to data processing, including data storage and the third parties involved. ManuScrape provides tools to remove personal identifiable information locally, before storage on the server. This is a respectful approach to data collection, and will help you stay compliant with GDPR and other data storage regulations.
Open Science
ManuScrape is designed to facilitate research observation collection, coding, and export while maintaining compliance with research ethics regarding participant protection and GDPR regulations to avoid storing personally identifiable data.
When data is stored under these conditions, sharing among researchers becomes feasible. However, not all qualitative data can be stored independently if it involves participant protection or personal identifiable information.
Data sharing is crucial to embrace the Open Science agenda, promoting research transparency, reproducibility, and further inquiry. It's essential for Open Science data sharing to align with academic best practices and utilize relevant repositories for uploads, such as OSF. Coordination within research teams is vital to strike a balance between data sharing and participant protection.
Ethics
One of the fundamental ethical principles in social science research is the recognition of the sensitivity and vulnerability of the study population, a universally acknowledged concept reflected in ethical guidelines.
However, nuances arise, particularly when studying small, hidden groups in online research. Various approaches in netnography and online ethnography navigate the balance between non-intrusive observation and informed consent. It's imperative for researchers, students, journalists, and members of society to adhere to best ethical practices, which may vary across fields, institutions, nationalities, and research goals.
While ManuScrape provides tools to ensure research participant protection, it's essential for users to maintain consistent operational practices in this manual process. Following best practices within one's field, including seeking review from Institutional Review Boards where available and consulting with relevant groups and colleagues, is recommended.
Open source
ManuScrape is released on the MIT license, which makes it public domain. You can host it on your network and modify it is you like. Public code makes risk analysis and data processing procedures available for anyone.
It also makes it possible for organisations to host their own ManuScrape server, and even contribute to the development.
