Abstract

The surge in internet accessibility has transformed wildlife trade by facilitating the acquisition of wildlife through online platforms. This scenario presents unique ethical challenges for researchers, as traditional ethical frameworks for in-person research cannot be readily applied to the online realm. Currently, there is a lack of clearly defined guidelines for appropriate ethical procedures when conducting online wildlife trade (OWT) research. In response to this, we consulted the scientific literature on ethical considerations in online research and examined existing guidelines established by professional societies and ethical boards. Based on these documents, we present a set of recommendations that can inform the development of ethically responsible OWT research. Key ethical challenges in designing and executing OWT research include the violation of privacy rights, defining subjects and illegality, and the risk of misinterpretation or posing risks to participants when sharing data. Potential solutions include considering participants’ expectations of privacy, defining when participants are authors versus subjects, understanding the legal and cultural context, minimizing data collection, ensuring anonymization, and removing metadata. Best practices also involve being culturally sensitive when analyzing and reporting findings. Adhering to these guidelines can help mitigate potential pitfalls and provides valuable insights to editors, researchers, and ethical review boards, enabling them to conduct scientifically rigorous and ethically responsible OWT research to advance this growing field.

RAS ID

71874

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

10-1-2024

Volume

38

Issue

5

Funding Information

Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science / Wildlife Conservation Research Unit / University of Oxford /Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group / Oxford Brookes University

PubMed ID

39248761

School

School of Business and Law

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publisher

Wiley

Comments

Morcatty, T. Q., Su, S., Siriwat, P., Andersson, A. A., Atoussi, S., Feddema, K., ... & Roberts, D. L. (2024). Navigating ethical challenges in online wildlife trade research. Conservation Biology, 38(5), e14341. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14341

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1111/cobi.14341