Ethical challenges and dynamic informed consent

Abstract

This chapter uses informed consent as a point of departure for the description of multiple ethical facets in citizen science. It sets out an overview of general ethical challenges in citizen science, from conceptual issues around social imbalances and power relations, to practical issues, such as how to deal with privacy for participants as well as data protection, intellectual property rights and other emergent issues. The chapter goes on to describe the different types of informed consent, particularly focusing on dynamic informed consent as the solution to the challenges described. Finally, practice-oriented recommendations about how to tackle some of the ethical issues raised in the chapter are set out.