Recent changes in research methods should prompt researchers to consider whether they have adequate insurance cover to protect our most valuable resource - the people who participate in research. Independent researchers and subcontractors might be at greater risk than they realise, if they are not insured.

For a long time, most qualitative research was conducted in professionally managed group rooms. Many researchers have developed assumptions about managing risks, based on these experiences.

While group rooms remain popular, researchers are complementing traditional focus groups with ethnographic techniques. Researchers these days spend time observing people shopping, preparing dinner, or doing their laundry - even sleeping! They will often want to interview the family together and watch the dynamics of the interaction. ‘In home' affinity groups have also become popular especially among mothers. Often these groups involve the children and so there are many people together in one home participating in a research activity.

In home research itself is not new. Researchers have conducted individual interviews in homes for many years. However, these interviews have tended to be fairly simple affairs; the researcher would often simply sit at the kitchen table with the family member, and may not even see the rest of the house.
The rise of ethnography has changed this. Researchers are spending more time in consumers' homes, and doing more when they get there. Ethnographists also bring equipment like cameras with them, and sometimes work in teams. The more people and the more equipment the more complicated it can get, and the greater chance of error.

The NSW Qualitative Researchers Group (QRG) has been watching the increase in ethnography, with some concern. Susan Gett, who chairs the QRG, summarises it this way: ‘What concerns us is: who will be held to be responsible if something goes wrong?'

Research can be risky for participants

The QRG is asking researchers to think carefully about the risks that participants face when they take part in research. Researchers - even subcontractors - need to make sure that they are suitably insured so that if anything happens, the consumer is fully protected.

Without wanting to be alarmist, bad things can happen to good people. For example, a consumer might attend an in-home group in someone else's house. She could slip over a toy on the stairs, and fall. She might be OK - but she might suffer brain damage. Perhaps a home owner becomes distracted and stressed, while cooking a meal with researchers observing her, and in the process, one of the team members becomes badly burnt?

How to minimise your risk

There are some things we can do to minimise risks:

1. The first is that we should expect mistakes and accidents to occur, even though they might not have happened yet. Be on your guard.
2. Second, everyone needs to be well-briefed - the consumer, the researcher team and the client, if they attend.
3. Third, the fewer people present, the less stressful it is likely to be for the participant. Stress increases risk.

What if something does happen?

If an accident happens, and a research participant is seriously financially disadvantaged by something that happens during the research, whom would they sue for compensation? The answer is that the injured party would probably sue as many people as they could, including the researcher and possibly the recruiter. You may say ‘but it was the home owner's fault, for leaving the toy there, or for knocking over the pan'. If the home owner has public liability insurance, which covers this kind of accident, perhaps the home owner will be the only one who is sued. But if the home owner doesn't have the right insurance cover - or doesn't have enough of it - the injured respondent might also sue the researcher and the recruiter, anyway.

We haven't had to think about this kind of cover in the past because so much research has been conducted in professional group rooms. This kind of accident is probably less likely to happen in professional group rooms. After all, there are fewer things to fall over, and the owners of the rooms are often well insured. As Andrew Strachan of City Group Rooms says, ‘We protect researchers, their clients and respondents with a $20 million public liability policy. Additionally all four CGR locations are in buildings protected by public liability insurance. In the event of an incident inside or outside CGR the researcher is safe from claims.'

What if you are a subcontractor?

According to a spokesperson for the insurance brokers OAMPS, ‘A subcontractor is in the unique and unfortunate position of vulnerability in a society where legal action is perceived as the ultimate solution to any problem, whether concrete, imagined or sensationalised'.

According to OAMPS, it is crucial that researchers are conscious of the fact that although they may subcontract to larger organisations or agencies, the insurance cover in place for these organisations might not protect the individual subcontractor.

Subcontractors or other individual researchers are also not likely to have the support or resources behind them to manage the problems that could arise from legal action.

What all this means is: researchers who interview in home or other locations may need to take out public liability insurance to cover themselves and their participants.

Professional indemnity insurance

OAMPS brokers also believe that all researchers, including independent researchers and subcontractors, should also seriously consider professional indemnity insurance, to protect themselves against being sued on occasions such as these:

• The researcher loses the tape or DVD recorder she used for an ethnographic project, or accidentally writes over them
• The researcher accidentally emails a report to the wrong client
• A child with a peanut allergy is given peanut butter when she attends a group.

According to OAMPS, professional indemnity insurance serves to protect those people who practice their trade in an industry where the variables are many, the pressure can be overpowering, and the parties involved can be volatile and where all researchers must try to manage a long list of potential exposures.

Professional indemnity insurance allows researchers to confidently conduct their business without having to worry about the risk of when things may go wrong, as they sometimes do. Most importantly, when needed, professional indemnity insurance will manage any problems that may arise from mistakes, misunderstandings and malice, ensuring the survival, and indeed, the continued success of the business and of the individual.

Aren't we covered by the code?

Theoretically, if all researchers - large organisations and independent subcontractor alike - adhered to the Code of Professional Behaviour and other industry regulations, as required, the need for insurance might not exist. However, the reality is that the business world is becoming busier, faster and more stressful, with pressure dictating our practices and actions, and our very thought processes. In view of this reality, the potential for human error must not be overlooked.

According to OAMPS, ‘Professional indemnity insurance is designed to provide protection to an extensive variety of businesses - from large agencies and subcontractors or other independent individuals, from the consequences that can potentially arise from exposures such as professional misconduct, breach of privacy, negligence and loss of documentation, amongst others'.

Carmel Andricciola is a senior account executive at OAMPS Insurance Brokers Ltd. She is happy to advise anyone about the insurance cover discussed. She can be contacted on carmela@oamps.com.au

By Susan Bell, chair of the AMSRS NSW Division

Note: AMSRO members obtain discounts on their professional indemnity insurance via Chambers Gallop McMahon, a division of Oamps Insurance Brokers Ltd. Contacts are lori.pankhurst@chambersgallopmcahon.com.au and/or
bruce.watson@chambersgallopmcmahon.com.au.

Individuals who are not members of AMSRO will not be eligible for the same discounts, but they may contact Carmel Andricciola at carmela@oamps.com.au  or 03) 9412 1555 for assistance in placing insurance as required.

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