Table of Contents

1. Orientations and Encounters

2. Harm Avoidance

3. Consent

4. Transparency

5. Confidentiality and Anonymity

6. Fairness

7. Relations with Colleagues and Responsibilities to the discipline

8. Relations with Sponsors, Funders, and Regulators of Research Outside Universities.

1.   Orientations and Encounters

Any assessment of anthropological ethics according to these guidelines must be construed in relation to concrete research contexts. These contexts are structured by relationships between researchers, affiliated institutions, funding agencies and fieldwork interlocutors, each of which must be understood as socially embedded in material power relations. Researchers should be alert to the vulnerability of their interlocutors – and to their own vulnerability in some contexts. 

In Palestine, researchers may come from colonized populations, colonizing groups, or other populations. Likewise, the social positionality of research interlocutors also varies widely. Some populations suffer from acute vulnerability, while others may enjoy relative privileges in the colonial setting. These categories are often undergirded by different legal statuses. Palestinians in particular may enjoy significantly different levels of rights and privileges depending on their location and therefore legal status in the colonial order, as well as any citizenship or residency rights they may hold in other states. Considerations of citizenship, class, race, gender, sexuality and age will also be relevant to assessing the positionality and potential vulnerability of researchers and their interlocutors.

Such power differentials potentially shape both research relationships and the production of knowledge. Given the weaponization of such differentials under settler colonialism, in the shape of for example, gender or sexuality stereotypes, ethnic or racial cliches, or religious archetypes, researchers of Palestinian communities have a responsibility to weigh these pitfalls and endeavor to navigate them in ways compatible with the principles stated here.

Moreover, researchers often are affiliated with institutions whose own social positionality is relevant. Some institutions may be allied to the colonizing power in Palestine, some may be Palestinian national institutions, and others may be civil society institutions. Those outside Palestine may be complicit with colonialism in Palestine or may resist it, given that complicity and resistance can be complex and contradictory. And, to add further complexity, these institutions may themselves contain pockets of dissent and varying degrees of complicity or resistance; individuals cannot be reduced to their institutions.

Finally, research on Palestinians in exile may entail very different sets of considerations than research inside Palestine. Nonetheless, the basic principle of assessing the positionality of researchers, research participants, and institutions remains key to any analysis of ethical considerations and obligations.

2. Harm Avoidance

Recognizing that real-life situations can involve weighing conflicting interests, researchers should seek to avoid harming the physical and psychological well-being of research participants. Ethnographers have a vital contribution to make in critiques of settler colonialism and structures of power and oppression. Nonetheless, they should strive to respect research participants’ rights and dignity.

Researchers should acknowledge that they are not entitled to study whatever they want, as the advancement of knowledge is not a sufficient justification to compromise the fundamental well-being or to violate the dignity of research participants. Researchers should also make themselves familiar with local norms and respect them to the extent this is compatible with other ethical considerations. 

If a researcher is unsure whether initiating or continuing research could harm participants, they should prioritize the rights and well-being of research participants over their own interest in conducting research.

Researchers should anticipate various effects on research participants, including in the longer-term, and take steps to avoid predictable harms. In some sensitive cases, particularly where the well-being of vulnerable groups is at stake, such measures may include withholding data from publication.

3. Consent

It is a bedrock principle of ethnographic research that our interlocutors and research participants should not be studied in the absence of their informed consent. That means they should understand the broad scope of what the researcher’s project is, who is funding it, what risks and/or benefits it may entail for them, and how the researcher’s results will be disseminated.

3.1 Consent Should be Informed

Researchers should seek to ensure that those participating in their studies understand key aspects of the research, such as the following:

●      the research questions;

●      sources of research funding;

●      how and to whom research findings will be disseminated;

●      foreseeable risks and benefits of participating in the research;

●      whether the researcher plans to use pseudonyms in publications;

●      how raw data will be safeguarded;

●      whether they plan to share raw data with other researchers;

●      whether data or other products of research will be made available to research participants themselves;

●      whether researcher plans to destroy research data after a certain time period.

If research subjects are politically vulnerable, it is important to discuss measures to ensure their safety.

3.2 Consent Should be Substantive, not Merely Formal

In some countries, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) attach great importance to formal, signed consent forms and their wording. Consent may also be obtained on a voice recorder during an interview. In some politically fraught circumstances, a written record that someone (an activist, for example) has participated in a study could even endanger that person so that it may be more ethical to substitute verbal for written consent. In the end, the quality of consent is more important than its form; similarly, obtaining consent by itself does not absolve researchers from their obligations to protect research participants, which may require ongoing self-monitoring and adaptive flexibility on the part of the researcher.

3.3 Consent to be Filmed, Photographed, or Audio Recorded

When assessing questions of consent, researchers should bear in mind that quotations can be anonymized in a way that pictures cannot. Researchers should remember that societies differ in what they are ready to see pictured. Researchers should never assume that their own culture’s rules on these matters apply elsewhere, and they should make sure that their filming or photographing does not violate local norms. Covert photography is usually not permissible.

In an era where digital technologies make it possible to identify people from photographs and in films, researchers should take special care in their use of visual recording. Just because it is legally permissible to photograph people in public spaces does not mean it is always ethically advisable. Thus, researchers should take special care in their visual recordings of protests, for example, to the extent that they might cover the faces of participants or film from behind.

Similar stipulations apply to audio recordings. Covert audio recordings are almost always unethical, and permission should be obtained to record public meetings unless recording is clearly permitted. 

4. Transparency

Researchers should not engage in covert research or employ deceptive methods.

Participant observation in public spaces without announcing one’s presence is permissible, but researchers should be mindful that the distinction between public and private is a culturally constructed one. Researchers should take care to understand and honor understandings of what is public and what is private in the relevant cultural settings.

In informal settings where the researcher is observing and interacting with a number of people, it may not be practical to hand out consent forms. Special care should be taken in settings where potential research participants cannot absent themselves from the researcher’s presence, such as workplaces and classrooms. 

5.  Confidentiality and Anonymity

The privacy and confidentiality of research participants should be strictly maintained for their safety and wellbeing. This is true for publications, but also for field diaries and other materials that may be exposed unintentionally to others. If participants want their names published, authors should make sure to explain to them the possible results of this, yet should also respect their choice if they insist.

5.1 Anonymization and Limits of Confidentiality

Researchers should be able to anticipate scenarios in which the confidentiality and anonymity of their research participants could be compromised. Particularly in published work, researchers should remove identifiers of people, communities, organizations, or places as much as feasible. They should also consider taking extra precautions with certain sensitive information that may put some participants at risk, or abstain from keeping such records in the first place. Anonymization measures can be used to secure privacy and safety in written and recorded materials. This guideline is true also for raw and processed data shared with colleagues and other community members for analysis or in preparation of publications or presentations.

Special care must be taken when publishing accounts of behavior or speech that may be embarrassing or controversial, as well as behavior or speech that may create problems between an interlocutor and authorities. Ethnographers have handled such situations in various ways. These include going back to an interlocutor for permission to include specific accounts; using pseudonyms; changing or omitting identifying details; and foregoing altogether use of a particular quote or description.

5.2 Confidentiality and Data Storage

Data in raw form should not be shared in a manner that infringes either the promise of confidentiality and anonymity made to participants, or the stated reasons for the research on which informed consent was agreed. Researchers should be careful that their data is securely stored until it is disposed of. 

Researchers must act conscientiously to secure all their data.  Audio and visual media are particularly sensitive. Special care should be taken to protect and when possible encrypt data wherever it is stored, as it may carry strong risk to research participants. If researchers are not confident in their ability to secure sensitive audio and visual data, other methods of documentation should be considered instead (e.g. using an anonymized field diary). Special care should be taken in moving data across border crossings and checkpoints to ensure that data are not confiscated or copied.

5.3 The Use and Protection of Data

Researchers are obliged to inform participants about the broad range of possible uses of gathered data. If the researcher decides to use such gathered data for purposes or in a manner that drastically departs from the original understandings communicated to research participants, researchers should obtain permission for such different uses to the extent possible.

6.  Fairness

As much as ethnographic research is often based on trust and reciprocity with research participants, it also entails unequal power relations and socio-political hierarchies. To avoid tension and misunderstanding, ethnographic research should aim to involve research participants as partners in the process of knowledge production, including after the completion of data gathering.

6.1 Reciprocity, Compensation, Payment

Ethnographic research is based on reciprocal relations. Research participants, assistants, translators, or non-human research subjects must not be exploited materially or otherwise. A fair return should be made for received help. This may be a monetary payment as agreed upfront or other means to express appreciation, depending on local norms and expectations.

Some researchers pay research participants, especially key interlocutors who translate texts, recruit research participants, or spend long hours explaining local contexts. There is no standard practice here, and practices may vary according to different contexts, the issue being studied, and the material means of the researcher. Payments can be considered unethical if locally perceived as bribes to induce people to do things they thought were wrong or did not want to do. Researchers should also be attentive to the potential harms of payment, such as exacerbating inequalities within or among communities (as well as between researchers) and creating misleading expectations.

6.2 Research Participants as Producers

Researchers may wish to study, quote from, or otherwise rely on works produced by research participants outside of interviews or traditional participant observation. These may include written materials (published or unpublished), pieces of artwork, or even social media postings. When relying on such materials, researchers should be mindful of any potential ethical obligations towards research participants as authors in their own right – depending on context, this may include acknowledgment of their authorship, seeking permission to reproduce their work, or offering payment.

7.  Relations with Colleagues and Responsibilities to the Discipline

Palestinian ethnographers and ethnographers of Palestine and Palestinians are members of a scholarly community to whom they have professional obligations and a debt of support. Consultation with local ethnographers, as well as those who worked in the past or are currently working in Palestine or with Palestinians in exile, is a professional courtesy. The community should bear in mind the vulnerability, inaccessibility, and threats that Palestinian researchers and Palestinian research subjects experience under settler colonialism or in exile, as well as the limited material resources available to many Palestinian researchers.

7.1 Individual Responsibility

Researchers in and of Palestine and Palestinians are subject to general standards of scholarly conduct as well as the guidance in this document. This includes the acknowledgement of others’ research and abstaining from fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Researchers also have an ethical obligation to their colleagues not to conduct “slash-and-burn” research that makes it harder for colleagues to follow in their footsteps or to do their own research. It is also incumbent on researchers to refrain from any form of harassment, including sexual harassment, of colleagues and interlocutors.

7.2 Relations Between Visiting and Local Researchers

Researchers visiting Palestine or Palestinian communities in exile should be attentive to inequalities in power and resources vis-a-vis their local counterparts. Visiting researchers should make an effort to involve local scholars in their research activities and should be alert to the potential risks and harms that some scholarly inquiries may impose on each of the parties.

7.3 Sharing Research Materials

Research findings, publications and, where feasible, data should be made available in the country where the research took place. Where possible, reports or briefings should be translated into the local language. In deciding whether and how to disseminate their work, researchers should weigh its potential impact.

7.4   Research Partners

If there is collaboration with colleagues or students, researchers should clarify rights, responsibilities, and compensation for work. Authors should publicly acknowledge assistance in research and provide just compensation. They should also give appropriate credit for co-authorship to writing or research partners. Special consideration should be given to junior researchers and other vulnerable partners. Academic supervisors and project directors should ensure that students and research assistants are aware of Insaniyyat’s Ethical Guidelines and act accordingly in their academic activities.  

8.  Relations with Sponsors, Funders, and Regulators of Research Outside Universities

Researchers’ primary ethical obligation is toward their research participants rather than toward entities that fund, sponsor, or regulate their research. And they have an ethical obligation to wider publics and to the global archive of accurate human knowledge.

8.1 Relations with Governmental Authorities

Researchers have an obligation to understand the legal codes and practices of governments with jurisdiction over them: their own, and those in the society where research is undertaken. Failure to understand local codes and practices may jeopardize the safety of both researchers and research participants.

Mere adherence to governmental laws or regulations can never by itself substitute for a researcher's ethical judgment.

8.2 Sponsored Research

Sometimes researchers are asked to consult or work for government agencies or donor agencies. Their knowledge of local populations may be particularly sought after by such agencies, whether for purposes of economic development, war-making, humanitarian assistance, public health, or environmental stewardship. As always, in such situations the researchers’ primary ethical obligation is toward their research participants, not toward an agency that pays them. Researchers should avoid projects that involve control or repression of communities they study. If the researcher would not feel comfortable being open with their research community about what they are doing, they should refrain from proceeding.