Because of this, malicious activities sometimes happen that allow a researcher conduct an unauthorized access to private information. In view of this, as a good etiquette when conducting a research on the Web, it is always important to remember to respect the privacy and confidentiality of information. Otherwise, legal problems may be faced by the researcher.
Should important information that are deemed to be private and confidential be critically needed by a researcher, one way that he can do to obtain the needed information is to ask for permission from the owner. In this way, the use of "deemed confidential" information will not cause the researcher with a problem. Eysenbach and Till (2001) suggests that,
Researchers and institutional review boards must primarily consider whether research is intrusive and has potential for harm, whether the venue is perceived as "private" or "public" space, how confidentiality can be protected, and whether and how informed consent should be obtained.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the most common issue regarding conducting a research on the Web. It is always the rule of thumb that information from the Internet must not be directly copied without quoting it and giving the real author a citation credit. There are a number of strategies, which are similarly available in the Internet, which can provide a researcher with ways to prevent plagiarism.
The Guidelines that Can Facilitate Research on the Internet
The flexibility of the Internet to provide diverse information for a particular subject may be confusing to a researcher. For instance, a search of one keyword in a search engine may return different sites that contain related and not so related information. If a researcher will try to...
Analyzing such problem, it is important that users follow several procedures to facilitate their research task. An online source suggests the following as some of the guidelines that can help a researcher conduct his research on the Internet in the most efficient manner.
Choosing a topic.
Choose a topic that interests you. It is important that before searching for information, a researcher must have already identified the main topic that he will discuss in his paper.
Background reading.
After selecting a topic, the researcher must have a clear background on the subject of his paper. This will help him make a structure of his research, thus helping him use the right keywords when using a search engine.
Narrow your topic to acceptable limits to keep it simple yet comprehensible..
One topic can definitely lead to a large tree of related topics. When conducting a research on the Internet, do not be influenced by the great number of information that the Internet provides, one after the other, for a particular subject. Instead, make a list of the most related topics of the research subject to prevent confusion.
References
Demery, P. (1997). Internet: Expanding the Boundaries of Research.
Warren Gorham & Lamont Inc.
Eysenback, G., et.al. (2001). Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research on Internet Communities.
BMJ, Vol. 323, pp. 1103-1105.
Conducting Research for a Project.
Retrieved on August 23, 2005, from Online.
Website: http://englishhistory.net/tudor/research.html
