Collecting, using and sharing data in research with people requires that ethical and legal procedures are respected.  Ethical guidance for research is usually provided by professional bodies, host institutions and funding organisations. Various laws govern the use of data

Informed consent is an ethical requirement for most research. It must be considered and implemented throughout the research lifecycle, from planning to publication and should include making provisions for sharing and future use of data

Before data obtained from research with people can be shared with other researchers, archived or published, data may need to be anonymised so that individuals, organisations or businesses cannot be identified

Sensitive and confidential data may be safeguarded effectively by regulating or restricting access to data or use of them.  As well as securely storing such data, such safeguards enable data to be shared with others for research and educational purposes

Ethical guidelines for research are issued by professional bodies, host institutions and funding organisations. We have collated a number of useful resources on research ethics, consent and anonymisation