The following references were used to develop the guidelines on open data practices in visual social research, which cover all stages of the research process. These same references have also been incorporated into the Recommendations for open data practices in visual social research, with the aim of establishing a code of conduct that serves as the basis for specific guidelines and decisions at each stage. Additionally, a dedicated section of references drawn from the best practices has been included to provide further operational guidance.

 

Recommendations References

  • Allen, L. (2015). Losing face? Photo-anonymisation and visual research integrity. Visual Studies, 30(3), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2015.1016741
  • Banks, M. (2001). Visual methods in social research. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020284
  • Barrelet, D., Egloff, W., Heinzmann, M., Künzi, S., Meier, D., & Riedo, C. (2021). Le nouveau droit d’auteur.: Commentaire de la loi fédérale sur le droit d’auteur et les droits voisins (4th ed). Stämpfli Verlag.
  • Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Sept. 9, 1886, last amended Sept. 28, 1979, 1161 U.N.T.S. 3. https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text/283693
  • Branney, P., Reid, K., Frost, N., Coan, S., Mathieson, A., & Woolhouse, M. (2019). A contextconsent meta-framework for designing open (qualitative) data studies. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 16(3), 483–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2019.1605477
  • Clark, A. (2020). Visual ethics beyond crossroads. In L. Pauwels & D. Mannay (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of visual research methods (2nd ed.) (pp.692–693). Sage.
  • Competence Center in Digital Law. (n.d.). CCdigitallaw.ch. https://www.ccdigitallaw.ch
  • Competence Center in Digital Law. (2021). DMLawTool. https://dmlawtool.ccdigitallaw.ch
  • Cook, A., & Hubbard, G. (2007). More than meets the eye: Using video to research the interactions of older people in care settings. In A. Clark (Ed.), Making observations: The potential of observation methods for gerontology (pp. 18–33). Centre for Policy on Aging.
  • Cox, S., Drew, S., Guillemin, M., Howell, C., Warr, D., & Waycott, J. (2014). Guidelines for ethical visual research methods. The University of Melbourne.
  • Creative Commons. (n.d.a). CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
  • Creative Commons. (n.d.b). Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
  • Creative Commons. (n.d.c). Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
  • DLCM – Research Data Management Hub (2018). Data management checklist. https://www.dlcm.ch/download_file/force/66/371
  • DuBois, J. M., Strait, M., & Walsh, H. (2018). Is it time to share qualitative research data? Qualitative Psychology, 5(3), 380–393. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000076
  • Eynon, R., Fry, J., & Schroeder, R. (2008). The ethics of internet research. In N. G. Fielding, R. M. Lee, & G. Blank (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of online research methods (23–41). Sage.
  • Fernandes, M., Rodrigues, J., & Lopes, C. T. (2020). Management of research data in image format: An exploratory study on current practices. In M. Hall, T. Merčun, T. Risse, & F. Duchateau (Eds.), Digital libraries for open knowledge (Vol. 12246, pp. 212–226). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54956-5_16
  • Flewitt, R. (2005). Conducting research with young children: Some ethical considerations. Early Child Development and Care, 175(6), 553–565.
  • Fox, J., Pearce, K. E., Massanari, A. L., Riles, J. M., Szulc, Ł., Ranjit, Y. S., Trevisan, F., Soriano, R. R., Vitak, J., Arora, P., Ahn, S. J., Alper, M., Gambino, A., Gonzalez, C., Lynch, T., Williamson, L. D., & L. Gonzales, A. (2021). Open science, closed doors? Countering marginalization through an agenda for ethical, inclusive research in communication. Journal of Communication, 71(5), 764–784. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab029
  • Ghazinour, K., & Ponchak, J. (2017). Hidden privacy risks in sharing pictures on social media. Procedia Computer Science, 113, 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.08.367
  • GO FAIR. (n.d.). FAIR principles. https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
  • Gross, L., Katz, J. S., & Ruby, J. (Eds.). (1988). Image ethics: The moral rights of subjects in photographs, film and television. Oxford University Press.
  • Hansson, K., & Dahlgren, A. (2022). Open research data repositories: Practices, norms, and metadata for sharing images. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 73(2), 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24571
  • Harper, D. (1998). An argument for visual sociology. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research (p.24–41). Falmer Press.
  • Heath, S., Charles, V., Crow, G., & Wiles, R. (2007). Informed consent, gatekeepers and gobetweens. British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 403–417.
  • Humphreys, L., Ng, Eve., David, P., Erni, J., Kenski, K., Piotrowski, J., Powers, M., & Rothenbuhler, E. (2019). International Communication Association (ICA). Code of Ethics. https://www.icahdq.org/resource/resmgr/governance-documents/policiesprotocols/2019-code-ethics.pdf
  • Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2(8), e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
  • Kamelski, T., & Olivos, F. (2025). AI-replicas as ethical practice: Introducing an alternative to traditional anonymisation techniques in image-based research. Qualitative Research,14687941241308705. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941241308705
  • Krämer, B. (2015). Fallbeispieleffekte (Vol. 13). Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845260235
  • Kress, G. R., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2. ed.). Routledge.
  • Late, E., Skov, M., & Kumpulainen, S. (2024). To share or not to share? Image data sharing in the social sciences and humanities. Information Research an International Electronic Journal, 29(2), 386–400. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir292834
  • Lobinger, K. (2016). ‘Creative’ and participatory visual approaches in audience research. In S. Kubitschko & A. Kaun (Eds.), Innovative methods in media and communication research (pp. 293–309). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Lobinger, K. (2025). Literacys der KI-Bildproduktion im Forschungskontext. Eine Reflexion über (visuelle) Kompetenzen und den Einsatz von AI-Images zur Bewältigung forschungsethischer Probleme. In W. Reißmann, R. Venema, U. Autenrieth, & N. Brüggen (Eds.), Visual Literacy. Bildkompetenzen in den Digitalen Medien (pp. 279–301). Herbert von Halem.
  • Lobinger, K., Reißmann, W., Pfurtscheller, D., Brantner, C., Venema, R., & Marchiori, E. (2019). Theoretische, thematische, forschungsethische und methodologische Herausforderungen der Visuellen Kommunikationsforschung: Ein programmatischer Ausblick. In K. Lobinger (Ed.), Handbuch Visuelle Kommunikationsforschung (pp. 723–749). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06508-9_37
  • Lomax, H. (2020). Consuming images, ethics, and integrity in visual social research. In R. Iphofen (Ed.), Handbook of research ethics and scientific integrity (pp. 899–915). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16759-2_39
  • Markham, A. (2006). Ethic as method, method as ethic: A case for reflexivity in qualitative ICT research. Journal of Information Ethics, 15(2), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.15.2.37
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  • Markham, A., & Buchanan, E. (2012). Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0). https://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf
  • Markham, A. N., Tiidenberg, K., & Herman, A. (2018). Ethics as methods: Doing ethics in the era of big data research—Introduction. Social Media + Society, 4(3), 2056305118784502. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118784502
  • Martone, M. E. (2015). FORCE11: Building the future for research communications and e-scholarship. BioScience, 65(7), 635–635. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biv095
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  • Open Knowledge Foundation. (n.d.a). Open definition 2.1. https://opendefinition.org/od/2.1/en/
  • Open Knowledge Foundation. (n.d.b). What is open data?
  • Open Knowledge Foundation. (n.d.c). The Open Definition. https://opendefinition.org/ https://opendatahandbook.org/guide/en/what-is-open-data/
  • Papademas, D. & the International Visual Sociology. (2009). IVSA code of research ethics and guidelines. Visual Studies, 24(3), 250–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860903309187
  • Pauwels, L. (2008). Taking and using. Ethical issues of photographs for research purposes. Visual Communication Quarterly, 15(4), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/15551390802415071
  • Pauwels, L. (2015). ‘Participatory’ visual research revisited: A critical-constructive assessment of epistemological, methodological and social activist tenets. Ethnography, 16(1), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138113505023
  • Pauwels, L. (2020). An integrated conceptual and methodological framework for the visual study of culture and society. In L. Pauwels & D. Mannay (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of visual research methods (2. edition, pp. 15–36). Sage.
  • Peattie, P. (2025). Visual critical ethnography: Centering narratives of identity, making research more accessible. Journal of Communication, jqaf013. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf013
  • Phillips, W. (2015). This is why we can’t have nice things: Mapping the relationship between online trolling and mainstream culture. MIT Press.
  • Pink, S. (2013). Doing visual ethnography (3rd ed.). Sage.
  • Prieto-Blanco, P. (2021). Afterword: Visual research in migration—(In)visibilities, participation, discourses. In K. Nikielska-Sekula & A. Desille (Eds.), Visual methodology in migration studies (327–343). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67608-7_18
  • Prosser, J. (2000). Visualising meaning in research. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research (pp.1–9). Falmer Press.
  • Prosser, A. M. B., Hamshaw, R. J. T., Meyer, J., Bagnall, R., Blackwood, L., Huysamen, M., Jordan, A., Vasileiou, K., & Walter, Z. (2023). When open data closes the door: A critical examination of the past, present and the potential future for open data guidelines in journals. British Journal of Social Psychology, 62(4), 1635–1653. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12576
  • Rauber, G. (forthcoming). Guide open research data: les données visuelles photo et vidéo (Draft V1). HES-SO.
  • Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation). (2016). Official Journal of the European Union, L119, 1–88. https://eurlex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng
  • Reißmann, W. (2012). Arbeit am (Bild-)Körper. Die Plastizität des Körpers im Digitalbild und jugendliches Bildhandeln in Netzwerkplattformen. In S. Geise & K. Lobinger (Eds.), Bilder, Kulturen, Identitäten: Analysen zu einem Spannungsfeld Visueller Kommunikationsforschung (pp. 165–185). Herbert von Halem.
  • Renold, E. (2008). Researching childhood with children. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practices (157–173). Routledge.
  • Rodrigues, J., & Lopes, C. T. (2022a). Research data management in the image lifecycle: A study of current behaviors. In R. Guizzardi, J. Ralyté, & X. Franch (Eds.), Research challenges in information science (Vol. 446, pp. 39–54). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05760-1_3
  • Rodrigues, J., & Lopes, C. T. (2022b). Describing data in image format: Proposal of a metadata model and controlled vocabularies. Journal of Library Metadata, 22(3–4), 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/19386389.2022.2117511
  • SNSF – Swiss National Science Foundation (n.d.). Data management plan (DMP) – Guidelines for researchers. https://www.snf.ch/en/FAiWVH4WvpKvohw9/topic/research-policies
  • SNSF – Swiss National Science Foundation (n.d.). Open research data. https://www.snf.ch/en/dMILj9t4LNk8NwyR/topic/open-research-data
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  • Tiidenberg, K. (2014). Bringing sexy back: Reclaiming the body aesthetic via self-shooting. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8(1), article 1. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2014-1-3
  • Tiidenberg, K. (2018). Ethics in digital research. In U. Flick (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative data collection (pp. 466–481). Sage.
  • Tolich, M. (2004). Internal confidentiality: When confidentiality assurances fail relational informants. Qualitative Sociology, 27(1), 101–106. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:QUAS.0000015546.20441.4a
  • Venema, R., Pfurtscheller, D., & Lobinger, K. (2020). Doing Visual Analysis Online. Forschungsethische Herausforderungen und Handlungsempfehlungen zur Analyse vernetzter Bilder. In C. Brantner, G. Götzenbrucker, K. Lobinger, & M. Schreiber (Eds.), Vernetzte Bilder. Visuelle Kommunikation in Sozialen Medien (288–310). Herbert von Halem.
  • Warfield, K., Hoholuk, J., Vincent, B., & Camargo, A. D. (2019). Pics, dicks, tits, and tats: Negotiating ethics working with images of bodies in social media research. New Media & Society, 21(9), 2068–2086. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819837715
  • Waycott, J., Guillemin, M., Warr, D., Cox, S., Drew, S., & Howell, C. (2015). Re/formulating ethical issues for visual research methods. Visual Methodologies, 3(2), 4–15.
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Best Practice References 

  • Lobinger, K., Lucchesi, F., & Tarnutzer, S. (2024). Visualized relationships (ViRe) – Image type overview and short descriptions. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10557227
  • Lobinger, K., Lucchesi, F., & Tarnutzer, S. (n.d.). Pair and individual interviews with couples and friends in Switzerland (ViRe) (Version 1.0) [Dataset]. FORS data service. https://doi.org/10.48573/FRMK-2S13
  • Tarnutzer, S., Lobinger, K., & Lucchesi, F. (2024). Image types revisited. A texto-material approach for creating image types. Studies in Communication Sciences, 24(1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2024.01.3894