Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’
There is an increased reliance, since COVID-19, on online methods in qualitative research for participant recruitment and data collection. While online methods have some clear advantages, they have also raised ‘new’ concerns about fraudulent participation in qualitative research that can hamper rese...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-04-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Qualitative Methods |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069251335497 |
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| _version_ | 1849314194496684032 |
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| author | Jaime Garcia-Iglesias Brian Heaphy Neta Yodovich Sophie Atherton Azeem Merchant |
| author_facet | Jaime Garcia-Iglesias Brian Heaphy Neta Yodovich Sophie Atherton Azeem Merchant |
| author_sort | Jaime Garcia-Iglesias |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is an increased reliance, since COVID-19, on online methods in qualitative research for participant recruitment and data collection. While online methods have some clear advantages, they have also raised ‘new’ concerns about fraudulent participation in qualitative research that can hamper research rigour. Drawing on a case study of two of our own UK-based projects which investigated intersections of health, sexuality, and social connections during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper critically examines the challenges posed by terms like “imposter” and “fraudulent” participants and suggests instead the use of “suspected participants” to acknowledge the researchers’ role in judging if participants are authentic or not. We argue for a reflexive epistemology that questions normative assumptions about authentic participation and advocate an inclusive but separate analysis of suspect data as an interpretive tool that can enhance rigour, rather than rejecting such data as a problem that needs ‘screening out’. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3979feb7dcfb4fff9894e8c75c280adb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1609-4069 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Qualitative Methods |
| spelling | doaj-art-3979feb7dcfb4fff9894e8c75c280adb2025-08-20T03:52:32ZengSAGE PublishingInternational Journal of Qualitative Methods1609-40692025-04-012410.1177/16094069251335497Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’Jaime Garcia-IglesiasBrian HeaphyNeta YodovichSophie AthertonAzeem MerchantThere is an increased reliance, since COVID-19, on online methods in qualitative research for participant recruitment and data collection. While online methods have some clear advantages, they have also raised ‘new’ concerns about fraudulent participation in qualitative research that can hamper research rigour. Drawing on a case study of two of our own UK-based projects which investigated intersections of health, sexuality, and social connections during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper critically examines the challenges posed by terms like “imposter” and “fraudulent” participants and suggests instead the use of “suspected participants” to acknowledge the researchers’ role in judging if participants are authentic or not. We argue for a reflexive epistemology that questions normative assumptions about authentic participation and advocate an inclusive but separate analysis of suspect data as an interpretive tool that can enhance rigour, rather than rejecting such data as a problem that needs ‘screening out’.https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069251335497 |
| spellingShingle | Jaime Garcia-Iglesias Brian Heaphy Neta Yodovich Sophie Atherton Azeem Merchant Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ International Journal of Qualitative Methods |
| title | Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ |
| title_full | Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ |
| title_fullStr | Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ |
| title_full_unstemmed | Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ |
| title_short | Imposter Participants? Towards a Reflexive Epistemology of ‘Suspected Participants’ |
| title_sort | imposter participants towards a reflexive epistemology of suspected participants |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069251335497 |
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