Law & Ethics

As an educational researcher, you often need to collect data that contains personal information. You may also use material (e.g. for research in schools) that is protected by copyright, such as tests, images or music. In terms of research ethics, it is good research practice to inform your subjects about the purpose of your research, how the data will be used, etc. Therefore, the issues of data protection and copyright are of central importance to you. Besides, such legal aspects are extremely relevant not only before data collection, but also afterwards. In the context of qualitative research projects, for example, it is important to anonymise the datasets when processing them – an aspect that is also relevant for the subsequent usability of your data. Under the heading "Law & Ethics", we offer information on these important topics.

Here, we provide information on the following topics:

• Information on data protection
• Informed consent
• Anonymising
• Ethical aspects
• Copyright aspects
• Permissions for assessment at schools