Edelman, J., Astor, A., Górak-Sosnowska, K., Sumiala, J., 2026.

Rethinking Research Ethics in Digital Times

Current research ethics protocols across Europe struggle to deal with the digital traces of human participants, their identities, and their communities. Ethics protocols that are ill equipped for the contingent nature of digital research and its challenges can erode trust, frustrate and burden participants unnecessarily, and impede collaboration. This predicament generates inefficiencies in the use of academic resources and leads to a lack of appropriately comparative research that can address important issues of contemporary digital societies.
In response, the Community Research Ethics Initiative has developed new recommendations for ethical procedures that universities, funders and regulators across Europe can adopt to ensure healthy, ethical, and productive research that addresses the urgent social challenges of contemporary society.