[DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

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Mirror from 05

[DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

Pedagon 21 Oct 2021 00:34

I received a pm from a user looking to do a study on the SCP Wiki writing community for a university course and, after discussing with people in staff chat about our approach to requests like this, was advised to make a post here and start an official conversation about introducing a policy in the future to refer people to.

My response to them about what we could do as staff was:

Hi [USER]!

This is a challenging question because it is for a course so there are some limitations from our end (as SCP Wiki Staff) of what we can have on the site in terms of advertising things like studies that I hope I can help you navigate without sacrificing this opportunity.

To get the big issue out of the way first, I don't think there would be much we could do as staff to help promote this opportunity to our authorbase because there are some issues of promoting a study that hasn't gone through a proper ethics IRB that places substantial risk on the site and our duty to ensure that our users are protected as a top priority. So since this is for a class and probably will not go through an ethics review, I don't think there's really anything we can do to help communicate this to our users or post it in any official spaces.

However, after discussion with other academic staff on the site, I believe it would be alright to post this opportunity to our forum (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/c-50863/general) provided it includes some information around data usage, risk, and other information that would be required by a typical review board on a consent form. Specifically, I would recommend using a system like qualtrics (or equivalent) to house all this information and gather interest/consent with sections outlining:

• What the purpose of the study/assignment is,
• What you will be asking people for,
• What risks or benefits are associated with participating + how you will deal with this (anonymizing, etc.),
• What you will be doing with the information specifically (writing a paper for your professor and TA eyes only, destroy raw data after the course ends, etc.), and
• A contact for questions (your email probably) and concerns (most usually would be the professor's name and email in case of any issues of safety or anything).

This doesn't need to be super long or academically written either. Just something an average user would understand that honestly tells them what they are signing up for. Alternatively, you would be freely able to share your recruitment with people you know on the site but just not as something we are supporting.

[INFORMATION ABOUT SPECIFICS TO THEIR STUDY REMOVED]

I am really excited to see that you are interested in studying our community and welcome any questions or concerns you may have about what I have outlined above.

Because there are many factors that go into safety of users in conducting studies and not everyone has the same access to review boards and not every study is the same (a high school class assignment would be very different from an academic writing a paper), I think having a more formalized policy or guide to refer people to would be helpful for both users and us as staff.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

Pedagon 21 Oct 2021 00:35

05 mirror: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14234747/discussion-policy-on-studies-involving-the-scp-wiki

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

Agent MacLeod 21 Oct 2021 01:35

Surprised this thread doesn't have discussion yet.

We're not exactly a democracy and I'm barely active here anyway but yeah, I think we should have both a sort of press policy (to protect and inform authors/community members from/about predatory "journalists" and unethical publications) and some sort of academic community policy (to protect and inform both community members and academics w/r/t community members' rights and everyone's responsibilities). Like, right now, what is a journalist or a researcher or a student supposed to do to learn about the community? What can they legally and ethically do? Idk and I wouldn't even know where to begin (besides asking staff, obviously).

I feel like y'all staff might want to consult a lawyer before implementing a policy but I definitely think there should be a policy in place.

Also, again I'm not very active but depending on the terms a student/researcher/journalist wants to operate under, I'm open to participation in studies/interviews.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

Celare 21 Oct 2021 16:58

Ok, I have some experience here as an undergraduate student researcher at a US uni.

So, as far as my program handles it, you have to get Research Certification through an ethics hearing if you want to do anything with humans. Yes, even conducting surveys or interviews. If they're working through a US university or something similar, I would expect them to have this certification (or something equivalent) and be able to show it. I really don't know how much of that is based on US law and how much is just my uni's policy, so I guess its possible that other orgs don't require such certs, in which case the bar may be slightly too high. It would suck if we disqualified someone for using us as their thesis because their uni has less stringent cert requirements for interviews than some.

As far as externally analytical studies and scholarly analysis goes, there's nothing we can or should do. We've already been the subject of some limited academic analysis (a quick google search renders this article in a reviewed publication and this undergrad research thesis) and its likely to continue and ramp up as the site's profile grows.

As a side note, I want to caution staff from creating a policy or warning that may discourage young researchers, particularly undergrads. I've seen a (mild) sentiment in O5 that we may need to warn off or discourage certain people, especially young ones, from conducting research on the site. IMO, this is a massive mistake. Containment fiction is an extremely novel and emergent genre that has potential beyond the scope of this site, and I think it should be one of the wiki's side goals to further the understanding and acceptance of it as a valid art form. One of the main ways this happens is through literary research and review. Since the viewership of the site skews younger, it's an extremely enticing avenue of study for undergrads (I seriously considered it) as it's both under-studied and easily accessible. I think it's really important that these folks are given the tools and space to do what they need to.

TL;DR: Some common-sense requirements are probably necessary, if not pressing. But an overly restrictive or even deterrent policy could have disastrous consequences for the long-term development of containment fiction as a literary genre.

Last edited on 21 Oct 2021 17:00 by Celare Show more

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

Pedagon 21 Oct 2021 17:52

Hi!

So, as far as my program handles it, you have to get Research Certification through an ethics hearing if you want to do anything with humans.
As far as externally analytical studies and scholarly analysis goes, there's nothing we can or should do.

This is what I am hoping to have this policy apply to. In cases of academic work, an ethics IRB certificate following review would be required for any work involving human participants and in the case that someone wants to publish something about the SCP Wiki community we should expect that they have gone through this process and are able to provide the certificate number before being able to advertise their study on the site or in official spaces (if that is what they are looking for and something we determine to be possible). This should be possible for anyone doing something publishable using human participants at most levels including an undergraduate honours project, master's thesis, doctoral study, or beyond. As for things posted to the wiki and publicly available, there isn't really anything to do about that because it is public information and different people have different approaches to that kind of data. So this would be explicitly about what we would require from people doing a study involving human participants coming from our community.

As a side note, I want to caution staff from creating a policy or warning that may discourage young researchers, particularly undergrads.

This is not my intent here and, in fact, having a policy on what is required for someone to reach out to members of the community should work to open doors as it shows we actually want people to do studies on the site just with certain precautions for the safety of users and them as researchers. Especially for younger people who may not have access to go through a proper IRB to get all of this information approved and receive certification.

I think that is something I should have made clearer in my initial post though so I appreciate you bringing it up. I believe this would be a policy outlining the minimum things we would need specifically for requests to do research involving human participants recruited from our community and specifically for when they would like to advertise their study in an official capacity. People doing professional or academic work already would have the things I listed as a part of their IRB review so these steps are more about outlining what we would require for people hoping to do interviews for coursework where an IRB review would not be possible. And if people want to do a study and invite their friends in the community to do interviews or things in their immediate circle it should be fine. But it would only be allowed to be advertised officially if it follows this policy

That is my intent at least

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

ghosteater 22 Oct 2021 21:41

Howdy. I'm actually, funnily enough, another person who was asking on IRC about whether or not we (as academics) could conduct some research through the wiki. Weird coincidence!

Looking above, it seems that a lot of what I wanted to say/what I was thinking has already been laid out by Celare. So I just wanna second all that, mainly.

My university similarly is asking ethics approval for such research - this ethics approval goes through some pretty strict review to make sure that it is fully safe and ethical for participants involved, all the way from topics covered to data safety (and GDPR is very relevant, seeing as I'm from the EU). So I'd like to doubly assure that any properly done research will prioritise protecting participants and that data (which in my own case will be anonymised anyhow).

I see you mention an IRB Ethics Certificate and possibly requesting the number for that cert so that we may conduct our research. I am unsure what my country's equivalent would be, moreover if the studies I'll be conducting are far enough 'up the rungs' to have that sort of certification or similar (hello EU based undergrad!). I'll absolutely look into it, both for the sake of my research but also in terms of providing information for the development of the policy.

Update in the middle of me writing this: I've reached out to one of my professors on what our equivalent cert would be. Will hopefully have an answer soon.

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quantum physics tells us that nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer.

Re: [DISCUSSION] Policy on studies involving the SCP Wiki

ThadeusOfNazereth 24 Oct 2021 19:13

Hi! I'm also familiar with research protocols at universities and the type of approval you typically need from your institution. Like others have said, it often has to go through a Human Research Review Board (HRRB) before an institution will allow it to take place.

Something else to consider that I didn't see brought up in other posts here is that there are users of the wiki who are minors (for the next few years, at least). There are usually additional requirements that review boards impose for research that could involve minors, and any policy should make clear that if you don't see approval for a study involving minors, there needs to be a clear disclaimer that minors may not take the survey or be involved in a study.

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