Social and Emotional Impact of ASD.

Never forget Longman, I love your posts.  When I get an email with notification that someone has posted on a thread with the quote, even though it doesn't say the poster's name I can always tell when it's one of yours.

I especially love your posts about the Government's failings.  You have a posting style that I can't put my finger on, but there is a sort of dry (potentially unintended) wit that makes itself known, along with an honesty I love.

I find your posts very interesting, well-researched and useful.  If that doesn't butter you up enough, hopefully the knowledge that I am probably even more pedantic than you, will do it!

Funnily enough, I had toyed with replying "only this one" to Anil's first comment. But IW beat me to it.

I must pause and think in future, I don't need to be self depracatory on this site. There's always someone there to do it for me!

Good idea, I'll make a note to do that next week. 

Is it stickied anywhere Anil A - Mod?  Perhaps it could be stickied on the section where researchers would always post their requests, if not?

Agree IW - perhaps in future just sharing this link? 

www.autism.org.uk/.../requests-for-research-and-participation.aspx

It's in the community rules. 

Now I was going to good-naturedly tease here and say "only this one?"  (But I won't). 

I understand the concerns, I just felt a bit sorry for OP because I don't think any intention to bypass procedure was intended, I think she is just a young student who didn't know the rules and she wasn't expecting such an assertive reprimand.  Instead of being steered into the correct protocol she was frightened off completely and I think researchers should be encouraged rather than discouraged.

Longman's right on this one. All research requests have to go through our procedures, we have a duty of care to protect our users. 

Don't worry Longman, I have been guilty regularly of such shocking behaviour myself.    I've heard it said on a few occasions that we (Aspies) don't tend to speak favourably of the same behaviour we are guilty of, in others.

I have been chewing over replying to this as undoubtedly I am both pedantic and prone to nit-picking, and black and white thinking.

However I'm not laying down flippant rules. There is such a thing as research ethics, and students in most places of study are advised about what is appropriate and what is not.

Were there not such ethics guidelines we would get a awful lot more of these enquiries.

It is also up to individuals whether they respond to such requests. However the community rules do advise against this sort of disclosure for sound reasons, and it is especially important if the information relates to children or vulnerable adults.

Sorry to be pedantic, nit-picking etc.......

I think Longman scared you off jessix, Longman and I are both adults with Asperger's, and pedantry and what you might call "nit-picking" as well as black and white thinking and liking things to be done the "right way" (being rule bound) are known traits of our condition.  Sorry we deflected from your request, and do feel free to repost your request as the moderators will advise you if you have posted anything against rules, and I am sure your post was made with good intent and any transgressions (if there were any) were unintended.  Longman is a very experienced HE professional and is qualified to talk about how research should be done, however I am sure he didn't mean to upset you.  Us Aspies just say it like it is, and we frequently get misunderstood for it, but it's not meant to upset people.

All research that intends to help is good.

Hi - Sorry for offending anyone, but I did state "If you do have any stories/experiences then rest assured I won't be using any names or any specific details within the assignment - this is purely just to gain a better understanding of how you're made to feel."

Like IntenseWorld said, we are all here for advise and research but rest assured I will no longer be proceeding with trying to find out any information from this forum. 

I think as long as people don't use names or identifiable locations or other personally identifiable material, and are happy to give the information (as you say this forum is viewable by anyone on the internet anyway) then it ought to be alright.

If a student is not researching ethically then they will find out the hard way at some point when it backfires.  At least OP has been honest and not come on under the guise of being a parent and tried to trick information out of people in an underhand way.

What then is the purpose of rule 6 in the Community Rules? And what is the point of Rule 3 in protecting confidence?

The difference is that this student intends to compile the material gathered in a research report, which asides being shown to her examiners, may be subsequently shown to employers, may even be published, and is likely to be held in a library for a few years after completion of the degree.

People who might provide the information ought at least to know the intended use.

Moreover students are supposed to declare the full purpose of the research, including that it is intended to be shown to others, and they must make a clear statement about the manner of disposal.

And this site should not be used as a quarry for student research projects. People should feel safe here.

And as I said the point of the project is to demonstrate competence. If the ethics are relaxed what subsequent ethical regard is the student likely to show in employment?

Some parents who might respond may be giving details about children, or vulnerable adults. That is something that needs to be controlled. OK anyone can access the site, as we've recently discussed. But I do not see why that should mean relaxing the rules on research and allowing students to quarry this site.

I don't think anyone is any more likely to accidentally disclose personally identifiable information on here replying to OP than they are any other post on the forum.

How is it different from anyone asking an autism-related question on here?  We are all researching.

If you look at the community rules you will see a procedure for researchers - it is not appropriate just tome come on and ask.

Firstly this is a safe site to help people. Despite your assurances about not using names or contact details, information you obtain might disclose identity accidentally, and there need to be proper ways of disposing of collected evidence.

Secondly the place where you are doing this research should have an ethics committee which ensures correct research procedures and would usually prohibit this kind of approach. The problem with asking like this is you have no way of ensuring the validity of collected data. Since the purpose of your project is to demonstrate you have learned to be a competent researcher, breaking the rules isn't a great start.

The place where you are studying has been seriously remiss in allowing you to do this, if that is what has happened.

Hopefully the moderators will respond as well, but they may not be around at the moment to intercept.