Further resources on legal and ethical issues

Below you will find an additional number of useful resources on disclosure assessment, research ethics, consent and anonymisation that we have collated.

Data protection

• FAQs on the GDPR and research and archiving by Scott Summers, UK Data Archive
• Guide to archiving personal data - The National Archives

Disclosure assessment

• Introduction to Statistical Disclosure Control - Matthias Templ, Bernhard Meindl and Alexander Kowarik
• Statistical Disclosure Control for Microdata Using the R-Package sdcMicro - Matthias Templ
• ONS Policy for Social Survey Microdata
• ONS Disclosure Control Guidance for Microdata Produced from Social Surveys 
• ONS Disclosure Control Guidance for Microdata Produced from Social Surveys – Case studies
• ONS Guidance for the release of an open data file 
• ICO guidance on Data Protection Impact Assessments

Ethical guidelines for researchers

• British Sociological Association (BSA) Statement of Ethical Practice
• Ethical guidelines from the Social Research Association
• Ethical guidelines from the Oral History Society
• Ethics guide from the Association of Internet Researchers
• RESPECT project - professional and ethical guidelines for the conduct of socio-economic research, funded by the European Commission's Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme
• Methodological Issues in Qualitative Data Sharing and Archiving
• Framework for Research Ethics from the Economic and Social Research Council

Data sharing

• Data Sharing Review by Richard Thomas and Mark Walport, UK Ministry of Justice, 2008
• Ethical sharing and re-use of qualitative data by Libby Bishop, UK Data Archive

Informed consent

• Data protection issues relating to survey research - from the perspective of market research firms and survey data
• Informed consent and the research process - an ESRC Research Methods Programme project

Anonymisation

• Anonymising Research Data - ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, Working Paper 7/06
• Guide to Social Science Preparation and Archiving from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
• Anonymisation and Social Research, Ruth Geraghty
• Timescapes anonymisation guidelines, University of Leeds
• Anonymisation: managing data protection risk - ICO code of practice
• The Anonymisation Decision-Making Framework - Mark Elliot, Elaine Mackey Kieron O'Hara and Caroline Tudor
• Jisc guidance on anonymous data
• Advice from med.data.edu on anonymisation

Research Ethics Committees

• Data protection and research activity - University of Essex guidelines on conducting research within current data legislation, with particular reference to interaction with funding bids and how this may strengthen such applications
• Ethics procedures and further information - a practical guide from Oxford Brookes University intended as an information resource on research ethics to assist with the process of applying for research ethics approval from a committee
• The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) - resources website and a journal, Research Ethics

Medical and health research

• Data protection, informed consent and research - a British Medical Journal editorial on data protection, informed consent and research, with further links
• Ethics and research governance - a Medical Research Council resource containing guidance on planning or conducting studies involving people who lack the mental capacity to give informed consent about taking part in research. Also covers the use of personal information by medical researchers, including patient data for which consent has not or will not be obtained
• The Research Ethics Service (RES) - guidance on NHS ethics applications from the NHS Health Research Authority
• Health & Social Care Information Centre - provides some NHS guidelines on the Freedom of Information Act, data protection and statistical and information governance

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