New ESOMAR/GRBN Guidelines for Primary Data Collection and Duty of Care Open for Consultation – Have Your Say

Two new guidelines are now up for public consultation. You are invited to share your opinion and suggest amendments. 

The first guideline for consultation is the ESOMAR/GRBN guideline for researchers and clients involved in primary data collection. Instead of drafting guidelines for each of the research methodologies, ESOMAR and GRBN have chosen to combine the basic ethical principles for each methodology into three overarching guidelines. This will be the first of these guidelines. 

The primary data collection guideline covers the ethical principles for any type of research in which the researcher has direct interaction with the people participating. Methodologies included are for example, surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic studies, and some forms of observational research, including mystery shopping. 

The second guideline is the ESOMAR/GRBN guideline on duty of care. This guideline is to advise anyone working with personal data on their responsibilities to protect the privacy and well-being of the data subjects. It also reflects on some specific research related risks, and new technologies which could increase the risk of an individual being targeted as a result of them having shared their data. 

The guideline may also help individuals, clients, researchers and their employees in distinguishing research activities from non-research activities meant to take direct action towards individual data subjects. 

We invite you to share your opinion on each of these guidelines and welcome any feedback you may have. To do so, you can download the guideline, insert your comments and/or suggested changes by 30 September and send it to professional.standards@esomar.org.