Ethical and legal aspects

Information on data protection

All the people featured on our pages have agreed to the publication of their material. Almost all of our interview partners even expect us to publish their material soon after the interview was conducted. It is therefore our primary goal to present material that meets high scientific standards without violating personal rights. The materials on our homepage have therefore been developed in close cooperation with the communities and speakers of the endangered languages and dialects. 

Consents are obtained from all participants before any data collection is carried out. Before each interview, participants are informed by the research staff about the aim of our research and the methods. Each informant is given: (1) names of responsible persons (2) an information sheet on academic affiliation, position and contact details, (3) a statement of our aims and intentions (4) data from our local collaborative partners, if applicable. Furthermore, we present our informants with a consent form that mentions the various ways in which the data can be made publicly available or published. 

Data for which there is no consent is stored in a certified repository without public access and never released to the public. 



 

In practice, there are always cases in which the persons portrayed are unable to give written consent for various reasons. In these cases, we record their consent on video.

  • Example video for a declaration of consent