‘Top Tips’ Page

The following tips relating to informed consent have been produced by the ‘Informed Consent and the Research Process’ project team.  They draw on examples that were raised by participants in our research, where researchers agreed that these could be disseminated.  They comprise examples of ways in which specific, and potentially problematic, issues relating to consent have been managed.

Ensuring participants understand what they are consenting to:

• Asking participants to repeat back to a researcher what a project is about and what participation will involve, as a check that information has been absorbed
• Repeating the consent procedure with participants after data have been collected – it is only once someone has participated in an interview (or other data collection process) that they will know whether or not they want to continue to participate or whether they want to consent to their data being used
• Ensuring consent is obtained at each point of data collection (and perhaps also ahead of the point of publication of reports, articles and books)
• In observational settings, wearing a badge saying ‘Researcher’ to remind people being observed that research is in progress
• Using pictures and graphics in information about a study that illustrates what participation will involve and includes a photo of the researcher
• Using a video to demonstrate what participation will involve
• Using different words, graphics and layouts for different age groups
• Keeping information to a manageable length, if possible no more than a page (excessively detailed information sheets can overwhelm participants)
• Allowing time for participants to talk to others (e.g. parents, teachers, carers) about the information provided about a project before a decision to participate is made. This time period may be one or two days or a week

Working with gatekeepers

• In institutional settings, such as schools, participants are sometimes allocated to a researcher by a gatekeeper without them knowing what the research will involve (i.e., they have not consented to participate).  Researchers can take along newspapers, magazines or wordsearch books to research sessions so that, should this case arise, the individual can spend the time in another activity rather than participating in the research without the gatekeeper knowing this has occurred.
• Where children are being researched with a school’s approval but where parental consent is also sought, those children who express a desire to take part in activities but whose parents have not consented to their being researched may still be allowed to participate in activities if no data relating to them are collected

Enabling participants to withdraw/ not participate in specific parts of a study

• In research with children and people with learning disabilities, providing participants with red cards that they can hold up if they don’t want to answer a particular question or don’t want to continue with the interview.  Researchers need to spend time with participants prior to the research commencing to enable them to practice this so that they feel confident to do it.  Another strategy is training participants to say ‘pass’ if they don’t want to discuss specific topics.
• Monitoring participants’ body language for signs of fatigue or distress and respond to such signs by suggesting that data collection be suspended

Respecting issues of anonymity, confidentiality and empowerment

• Inviting participants to choose their own pseudonyms (thereby avoiding researchers unwittingly allocating a pseudonym by which an individual may be identified, if for example it happens to be a nickname of theirs)
• Inviting participants to choose whether or not their real names are used
• In research with people who have died, inviting participants to choose whether the actual name of their relative is used
• Making changes to personal details disclosed about respondents in publications in order to safeguard anonymity, where such details (e.g. age, ethnic group, household type) are not relevant to the issue under discussion
• Designing data collection techniques that allow participants to be interviewed either separately or with others (for example, giving the option to children to be interviewed alone or with a friend)
• Recognising that gaining signed consent will not be feasible or appropriate in every fieldwork setting
• Being consistent when ‘tidying up’ transcripts in terms of grammar and expression, so that (for example) changes are not made to researchers’ speech while respondents’ speech is left unchanged
• Avoid bringing members of focus groups together informally for a lengthy period of time prior to running a focus group (e.g. over lunch) as this can impact adversely on focus group dynamics
• Making any payment to participants at the end of an interview (or other data collection process) in order to minimise the chances of this acting as an incentive to participate
• Including in information provided to participants contact details for organizations that provide help and advice in relation to the subject being researched