2025/07/01 by Heather Shaw, Olivia Brown, Joanne Hinds +3 · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
paper · doi:10.1177/25152459251361013
openalex publication_date 2025/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Behavioral sciences now routinely rely on digital data, supported by digital technologies and platforms. This has resulted in an abundance of new ethical challenges for researchers and ethical-review boards. Several contemporary high-profile cases emphasize that ethical issues often surface after the research is published, once harm has already occurred. Consequently, implementing safeguards in digital-behavioral research is often reactionary and fails to adequately prevent harm. In response, we propose the DECIDE (Describing Ethical Choices in Digital-Behavioural Data Explorations) framework, which encourages ethical reflections and discussions throughout all stages of the research process. The framework presents several questions designed to help researchers view their work from new perspectives and uncover ethical issues they might not have anticipated. We provide several resources to support researchers with their ethical reflections and discussions, including (a) the DECIDE framework spreadsheet, (b) the DECIDE desktop app, (c) information documents, and (d) flowcharts. In this article, we provide suggestions on how to use each resource to encourage proactive discussions of how ethical issues may apply to specific research contexts. By promoting continuous ethical considerations, safeguards can be put in place throughout the research project, even after research commencement. The DECIDE framework shifts ethical reflection away from being reactive toward a more proactive endeavor, reducing the risk of harm and the misuse of digital-behavioral data.