Participant consent and metadata, analyses

[Claire Bowern]

Hi John,
Permission to release metadata should definitely be sought from
participants before any of it is put on the web or shared. It's like
any type of personal information - different types of information
might be subject to different degrees of restriction. Participants may
or may not want to be acknowledged by name or identified with the
project. They might not want people to know their age. You might have
their home address or phone number - that's also metadata and people
differ how happy they are with others knowing them.

For analyses, that's also something to ask your research participants,
though it's also up to you. The analyses also contain data, so you
need permission to make that available. Some linguists are happy
putting work in progress on their home pages, others want to wait for
publication. Some are happy to share with colleagues on various
conditions (e.g. permission is required to quote).

Hope that helps,
Claire