In tidytags: Importing and Analyzing 'Twitter' Data Collected with 'Twitter Archiving Google Sheets'

tidytags should be used in strict accordance with Twitter's developer terms.

Although most Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) consider the Twitter data that tidytags analyzes to not necessarily be human subjects research, there remain ethical considerations pertaining to the use of the tidytags package that should be discussed.

Even if tidytags use is not for research purposes (or if an IRB determines that a study is not human subjects research), "the release of personally identifiable or sensitive data is potentially harmful," as noted in the rOpenSci Packages guide. Therefore, although you can collect Twitter data (and you can use tidytags to analyze it), we urge care and thoughtfulness regarding how you analyze the data and communicate the results. In short, please remember that most (if not all) of the data you collect may be about people---and those people may not like the idea of their data being analyzed or included in research.

We recommend the Association of Internet Researchers' (AoIR) resources related to conducting analyses in ethical ways when working with data about people. AoIR's ethical guidelines may be especially helpful for navigating tensions related to collecting, analyzing, and sharing social media data.

tidytags documentation built on Jan. 10, 2023, 9:06 a.m.