Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research 
Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Workshop: 
Good practice in data management & data sharing with social research  
 
Edinburgh, 10 June, 2015 
 
Robin Rice  
EDINA and Data Library 
University of Edinburgh 
 
 
Ethics 
Ethics committees 
  
• Review research applications and advise on whether they are 
ethical.  
• Safeguard the rights of research participants.  
 
Participants  
  
• Must be fully informed as to the purpose, methods and intended 
uses of the research, and advised of what their involvement will 
entail.  
o NB  As funding councils expect that you will be sharing your data, best to 
include mention of this when consent is obtained. 
• Their participation must be voluntary, fully informed and free of any 
coercion. 
• Confidentiality of information collected and anonymity of subjects 
must be respected at all times. 
  
 
Privacy, confidentiality & disclosure 
Privacy 
• An entitlement of the subject. 
• Subsequent handling, storage and sharing of data must be 
carefully managed to preserve the privacy of the subject.  
 
Confidentiality 
• Refers to the behaviour of the researcher, whereby the privacy 
of the subject is maintained at all times. 
 
Disclosure  
• Must be guarded against! 
• Various techniques to avoid it, whether for ethical, legal 
reasons or commercial reasons, e.g.  
o removing identifiers from personal information 
o aggregating geographical data to reduce precision 
o anonymising data – but without overdoing it! 
 
 
Data protection 
1988 Data Protection Act 
 
 Research data, 
specifically what you can 
do with it, falls within 
the scope of this Act. 
 
 Failure to observe its 
requirements can get you 
into a lot of trouble!  
 
Data Protection for Students (Records 
Management Office): 
http://edin.ac/1CVrZFn 
Working with personal / sensitive 
research data  
 Creation 
 Storage 
 Migration 
 Disposal 
 Sharing 
Have a look at the consent forms you’re given and 
answer the following questions: 
What are your initial impressions of each of the consent 
forms and information sheets? 
Is there anything that’s missing or anything that you feel 
unnecessary? 
 
Activity: consent forms