Code of Ethics for Autoethnography

Preamble

This code of ethics has been created with the aim of providing the autoethnographer with a set of principles on which to guide their research in the face of moral dilemmas. Finding ourselves in an unprecedented time with unique challenges, we must understand this code of ethics as particular to our current moment. We must never lose sight of the fact that what we ought to do when faced with ethical questions is context-dependent. Because the autoethnographer faces unique challenges, this code of ethics will not only be created in the context of a global crisis, but also in the context of a novel and radical form of research. As such, we must understand the following:

  1. Autoethnography is never only about the author. As individuals situated in social networks and relationships there is no way in which one is able to not talk about others. Although we may understand our projects as self-reflections, we must always understand that we necessarily find ourselves in broader social contexts. As such, we must think about the ways in which describing certain things about ourselves, things that we are okay with may reveal things about those in our social networks. If we don’t take the time to talk to these individuals about our research and gain their consent we run the risk of exposing elements of their lives without their permission.
  2. The autoethnographer should always aim to be as honest as possible with both their audience and themself. There will undoubtedly be times at which we may feel embarrassed or afraid to record a certain piece of information in our ethnography. If we believe a piece of information is likely to put ourselves or another in danger, if we engaged in illegal activity for example, it may be acceptable to not include it in our ethnography. Nevertheless, we should aim to record as much information as possible. Although objectivity may be an impossibility in our venture, we cannot withhold relevant experiences just because they may portray us in a negative light.
  3. We should always recognize that the concept of care applies in autoethnography as well. Because we are not explicitly observing others like in traditional ethnographies, we may be tempted to forget that we have an imperative to “take good care” of our participants (in this case ourselves). In autoethnography we have to recognize that we have an ethical responsibility to care for ourselves.