Before asking a question, the researcher should ask the subject s permission, clarify the time requirements, specify the issues to be discussed, and make it clear that the subject can refuse to answer any question or can terminate the interview at any time for any reason. Ensuring privacy assures the quality of the reporting. Information collected should not cause embarrassment, financial harm, or other problems to the subject. Interviewers or data collectors will need to be trained in the importance of collecting information privately, never revealing information outside the research team, limiting access to data forms, and removing individual identifiers from the data set before analysis. An external ethical review could be done by an existing group or a group formed just to review a particular study.
Many universities have some form of ethics review committee, primarily for biomedical research.
Ethical review groups for social science research are much rarer. The biomedical model defining which research needs formal ethical review can be complex, confusing and often counterproductive.