Ethical issues with using Internet of Things devices in citizen science research: A scoping review

TL;DR

This scoping review examines ethical issues in citizen science research involving Internet of Things devices, highlighting privacy, data quality, and intellectual property concerns, and offers recommendations for ethical integration.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of ethical challenges and strategies in IoT-enabled citizen science, filling a gap in current research and offering practical guidelines.

Findings

Ethical issues mainly include privacy, data quality, and intellectual property.

Researchers recommend data privacy protocols and clear IP policies.

Use of commercial IoT devices raises additional ethical considerations.

Abstract

Our chapter presents a scoping review of published scientific studies or case studies of scientific studies that utilise both citizen scientists and Internet of Things devices. Specifically, we selected studies where the authors had included at least a short discussion of the ethical issues encountered during the research process. Having conducted a search of five databases (IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and PubMed), we identified 631 potential results. Following abstract and title screening, and then full text eligibility assessment, we identified 34 published articles that matched our criteria. We then analysed the full text for these articles inductively and deductively, coding ethical issues into three main categories. These categories were autonomy and data privacy, data quality, and intellectual property. We also analysed the full text of these articles to see what strategies researchers took to resolve these ethical issues, as well as any legal implications raised. Following this analysis, our discussion provides recommendations for researchers who wish to integrate citizen scientists and Internet of Things devices into their research. First, all citizen science projects should integrate a data privacy protocol to protect the confidentiality of participants. Secondly, scientific researchers should consider any potential issues of data quality, including whether compromises might be required, before establishing a project. Finally, all intellectual property issues should be clarified both at the start of the project and during its lifecycle. Researchers should also consider any ethical issues that might flow from the use of commercially available Internet of Things devices for research.