Community Confidentiality, Consent, and the Individual Research Process: Ethics in Demographic Research

Carol E. Kaufman, University of Colorado
Saumya Ramarao, Population Council

As many researchers submitting research proposals now may attest, cursory review is rapidly evaporating. Institutional Review Boards are now increasingly meticulous about informed consent and risks and benefits to the individual. We argue that for demographers - by definition interested at the phenomena at the population level - concern for individuals as a part of communities is critical to the research process. When results are given in an aggregated form, do communities have a right to confidentiality? When research is localized, do communities have the right to informed consent? Can researchers uphold confidentiality of respondents from small communities? In short, ethics in research has primarily focused on individual rights and responsibilities. Is this enough in demographic enquiry? This paper seeks to extend the dialogue and delineate questions that may not have entered yet in the research calculus of demographers.