ArticleAmerican journal of public health2018
Ethical Issues in Social Media Research for Public Health.
Article in American journal of public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Social media for palliative and end-of-life care research: a systematic review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- Ethical and Methodological Considerations of Twitter Data for Public Health Research: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Toward an Ethical Framework for the Text Mining of Social Media for Health Research: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in digital health · 2020Pooled it
- Social network interventions for health behaviours and outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Endometriosis- "Either way a tragedy"? A qualitative social media analysis of endometriosis perceptions in Germany.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Exploring Differential Patterns of Dissociation: Severity and Dimensions Across Diverse Trauma Experiences and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Ethical Design of Data-Driven Decision Support Tools for Improving Cancer Care: Embedded Ethics Review of the 4D PICTURE Project.JMIR cancer · 2025Review
- WhatsApp-propriate? Exploring "WhatsApp" as a Tool for Research Among Ghanaian Immigrants in the United States.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2024Article
- Navigating the Modern Landscape of Social Media: Ethical Considerations for Research With Adolescents and Young Adults.Translational issues in psychological science · 2024Article
- Psychometric properties and normative data of the Italian version of the Cognitive Function at Work Questionnaire: a screening tool for detecting subjective cognitive complaints at work.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Reporting of Ethical Considerations in Qualitative Research Utilizing Social Media Data on Public Health Care: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Detecting Substance Use Disorder Using Social Media Data and the Dark Web: Time- and Knowledge-Aware Study.JMIRx med · 2024Article
- INviting Veterans InTo Enrollment in Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (INVITE-ADRC): An NIA and VA-sponsored initiative to increase veteran participation in aging and dementia research.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- A Descriptive Analysis of a Popular Pregnancy Forum: Comments on the Developmental Consequences of Cannabis Use on Offspring.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2024Review
- From palm to practice: prescription digital therapeutics for mental and brain health at the National Institutes of Health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Ethical guidance for conducting health research with online communities: A scoping review of existing guidance.PloS one · 2024Article
- Brain fog in chronic pain: Protocol for a discourse analysis of social media postings.PloS one · 2024Article
- Use of cannabis to manage symptoms of mental and physical health conditions during pregnancy: analysis of a pro-cannabis pregnancy forum.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Social media (SM) offer huge potential for public health research, serving as a vehicle for surveillance, delivery of health interventions, recruitment to trials, collection of data, and dissemination. However, the networked nature of the data means they are riddled with ethical challenges, and no clear consensus has emerged as to the ethical handling of such data. This article outlines the key ethical concerns for public health researchers using SM and discusses how these concerns might best be addressed. Key issues discussed include privacy; anonymity and confidentiality; authenticity; the rapidly changing SM environment; informed consent; recruitment, voluntary participation, and sampling; minimizing harm; and data security and management. Despite the obvious need, producing a set of prescriptive guidelines for researchers using SM is difficult because the field is evolving quickly. What is clear, however, is that the ethical issues connected to SM-related public health research are also growing. Most importantly, public health researchers must work within the ethical principles set out by the Declaration of Helsinki that protect individual users first and foremost.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.