APA Refresh: How Should I Refer To My Anonymous Research Participants?
For some of your work at Walden, you may need to conduct
surveys of your own participants. In these cases, you may be wondering—how
should I refer to these research participants who want to remain anonymous? Do
I need to cite them? Read on for some examples and APA tips on referring to the
participants in your research.
You can use a variety of techniques to refer to research
participants, and APA has some specific recommendations. According to the APAStyle Blog, these include but are not limited to: their roles, pseudonyms,
initials, case numbers, or letters of the alphabet. The APA Style Blog also
suggests that you can alter some characteristics to make participants less
distinguishable, leave out some information about the participant, or combine
participant statements into a composite participant. For more detailed
examples, see section 1.11 of your APA manual, but I’ve also listed a few
below.
Initials: CH stated that they “love writing and visiting the
Writing Center”.
Numerals/Case Numbers: According to participant 7, an online
student, “the Writing Center is the best.”
Composite Statement: Several survey participants indicated
that they enjoy and plan to visit the Writing Center again in the future.
You may notice here that none of these examples are
cited—this is to protect the anonymity of the participants and it is not
necessary to cite your own anonymous research participants. If a participant
would like to go on record, then you should use personal communication rules
for referring to and citing that participant in text.
Keep these rules and handy resources below in mind if you’re
conducting your own research and have anonymous participants.
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