ETHICS CLEARANCE FOR DIGITAL HUMANITIES

Abstract

The last two decades have seen exponential growth in the application of computational methods for the study and analysis of materials in the humanities and social sciences. Volumes of research report on purpose-built software or data harvesting on social media platforms, but the issues around ethics clearance are yet to be streamlined. When is ethics approval necessary? What is its purpose when working with publicly available data? This chapter discusses the need for ethics clearance in the context of the interdisciplinary field of the digital humanities. Three case studies exemplify the diversity of scope, Terms of Service, and other idiosyncratic features of (a) text-based microblogging sites (such as X), (b) image-driven platforms (e.g., Instagram or Pinterest), and (c) interactive gaming environments (Pokemon Go! or Roblox, for example). The central argument is that a solid understanding of the complexity and nuance of the digital environment is essential for researchers and ethics committee members alike. To support this task, a checklist for optimised applications for ethics clearance has been developed.