Creating a Physically and Psychologically Safe Research Environment |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Mariel Leonard (DeZIM) |
Research topics, locations and interpersonal contexts can put interviewers, analysts, observers and participants at risk of immediate or future physical and psychological harm. The details of life experiences that researchers collect and participants share are known to surface intense emotions or reactions. Trauma-related risks are not limited to studies generally recognized as sensitive or dangerous – including addiction, assault, violence, death, self-harm, forced migration, economic inequity, exploitation or racism. Unexpected situations can arise during any research interaction be it in-person, by telephone, virtual or analytic. Protocols and standards do not yet exist to define, support and help manage research environments in ways that mitigate these risks for all involved. Additionally, when high intensity or high risk encounters do occur, there is little guidance as to what constitutes the appropriate response, care or treatment. Researcher and participant safety should be woven into the fabric of the project lifecycle, including in the initial decisions related to choice of topic, team composition, community context, provider training, participant preparation and consent through to data collection instruments and protocols proceeding to analysis and reporting. It is time for the field of public opinion research to develop best practices for creating and maintaining safe research environments.
We invite contributions that discuss methods of monitoring and protecting the physical and psychological safety of all research participants, including monitoring respondents and researchers, providing training or developing safety protocols for respondents and researchers, or safeguard researchers during the analytical process. We also welcome contributions that share guidelines or best practices for determining the sensitivity of a survey or research, and expanding ethical oversight to include researchers.