Institutional Review Board (IRB)

IRB News

January 2020 - Research in the Age of Social Media

Social media has changed the game for nearly every avenue of life, including how we conduct research. Facebook groups, Twitter feeds, Reddit threads, and YouTube videos open new opportunities for participant recruitment and publicizing your study outside your immediate physical environment or academic circle. Savvy researchers are creating closed forums and groups for research participants to interact, encourage one another, and share experiences. People’s behavior on social media has itself become a hot area of research in the social sciences.

With new research arenas, however, come new concerns for us and our participants. For example, privacy settings and terms of agreement might contain language that either makes our efforts not private (e.g., others can monitor our research activities) or tracks data on our participants we are unaware of (e.g., an online survey site that tracks and reports participant IP addresses; the physical location of the computer that is used to complete the survey). Participants may not be aware of all the risks associated with data breaches and site monitoring, so the onus falls to us, the researchers, to anticipate problems and protect our participants and their private data.

With that in mind, here are a few tips for safely engaging research participants on social media outlets:

  • Public or private access. You can freely “observe” behavior on social media if the postings are publicly accessible! On Facebook, for example, this means anything you can see about a non-friend on their page; on Twitter or Instagram, it’s what you can see about someone you don’t follow.
  • Transparency. If you join a group on Facebook or post a recruitment script on Reddit, be clear with other members that you’re a researcher looking to recruit for a study. Don’t pose as someone you’re not (e.g., join a group for loved ones of people lost to suicide by saying you lost someone) or “lurk” (join a group and passively read without interacting) in a private forum.
  • Leverage your reach. Use your accounts to post flyers and recruitment information that have been approved by the IRB and, if necessary, the website administrator. These posts should include how interested participants can get in touch with you. Encourage friends and followers to share the post to broaden your reach.
  • Have alternate methods of communication. Don’t use social media to transmit study information such as appointments, next steps, or results. Maintain a secure, confidential mode of contact (encrypted email or private phone line) for these sensitive communications.
  • Check your settings. This is a great time to check your own social-media privacy settings. Limit access to your contact lists and “friends of friends.” Some professionals choose to maintain two accounts – a personal and a professional – to avoid conflicts or breaches (e.g., if a personal friend of yours sees that you’re now “friends” with a study participant as well).
  • Do your research… before you do your research. Learn about the privacy laws both in and outside of the United States. Social media has an international presence, and citizens of certain countries and regions are protected by their local laws, even if your research is based in the US. For information on data privacy protections in the European Union, see https://gdpr.eu/

Any questions over this or other IRB activities can be directed to either IRB Co-Chairs: