Importance Of Confidentiality In Research

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Additionally, confidentiality is an important ethical principal in social work research as its misuse can lead to potential harm for the participants, especially the vulnerable groups. Confidentiality is a term that ensures the protection of the participant’s identity in reports or externally published works by avoiding collection of characteristics, events or detail that make it possible to recognize the individual. Furthermore, Kimmel (1998) reported the long term negative consequences of published data, which can cause a sense of betrayal to participants when they find their information is used for purposes unknown about at the start of the process (McLaughlin 2006, 64). According to Corti, Day & Backhouse(2000) the problem could be solved if …show more content…

Additionally, sometimes refugees undergo life-threatening risks to disclose information otherwise deemed inappropriate by the camps to the researcher, e.g. in the case of Bangladeshi refugees who participated in a research and were threatened by the criminals in the camps resulting in intervention from the authority. In order to balance such dilemma, the reciprocal method should be adapted. Founded on the principal of reciprocity, the method suggests that the risk and cost associate with participation in research should result in tangible and advantageous results for the participants. Thus, researchers should provide the community with negotiation such being provided with training and project support (Pittaway, Bartolomei & Hugman, 2010). Thus as constituted, confidentiality is important in social wor research as giving contextual situation can result in harmful situation for the

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