Research Study on Ethics Boards

Motivation

The interest in ethics in security and privacy research is rapidly growing,and we care more about ethical correctness than years ago (see, for example, Usenix Security's new ethics guidelines). Various boards and committees, such as IRBs and RECs, exist to review and guide researchers in using ethical methods. However, the structure and design of these ethics boards and guidelines originate back to medical research and have been predominantly influenced by disciplines outside of security and privacy. While our community's interest in ethics is rising, there is still a lack of a shared global foundation for discussing ethical issues. A common and international ground is crucial for guiding ethical education, discussions, and decisions within our community. Therefore, we plan to investigate the ethical processes in our community and survey the community's beliefs and attitudes about research ethics.

Who We Are

Part of our study is a survey within our community. To avoid jeopardizing the double-blinded reviewing process, we chose to remain anonymous given that we aim to widely sample from authors, and hence reviewers, of top conferences. We nevertheless assure you that we have received approval from an ethics review board and are happy to share more information at a later stage of this project. As to our background, we are a group of researchers, some of whom have more than ten years of experience in security research, regularly publish at top-ranked conferences, and are part of various PCs interested in understanding how ethics is organized within our field. In case you have questions, we are happy to answer them via mail (info@cysec-ethics.com).

About the Study

As stated above, we aim to understand the ethical processes as well as attitudes and beliefs toward ethics in the security and privacy research community. To gain this understanding, we survey our community to ask about their experiences and opinions about ethics boards. We plan to compile and publish a knowledge base with our findings and resources to guide researchers in ethical decisions and ethical committees in review processes worldwide. Ultimately, it'll make the review process smoother and more supportive for researchers!

About the Survey

The linked survey helps us to understand how ethics boards worldwide are organized and how our research community thinks about them and research ethics in general. It is 20 minutes short, anonymous, and all questions are optional. You can help us identify and understand problems and improve ethical review procedures, ultimately making the process smoother and more supportive for researchers like you! Additionally, we plan to compile and publish a knowledge base with our findings and resources to guide researchers in ethical decisions and ethical committees in review processes worldwide. By participating, you contribute to shaping a more transparent and efficient system that benefits our entire research community. We truly value your feedback and appreciate the time you're taking to share your insights with us. Thank you! Thank you!

Your participation is voluntary, fully anonymous, and takes only 20 minutes.

Upload additional documents requested in the survey.


If you are interested in the results, feel free to add your email address below.