Teaching Paper: Researcher as Guest Accountability Protocol for Fieldwork Ethics
Author: Dr. Anna Neya Kazanskaia
Publisher: NEYA Global Publishing
Journal: NEYA Global Journal of Non-Profit Studies
Publication Type: Teaching Paper
Series: Safeguarding Tools for Preventing Research Harm
Year: 2026
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5669-1676
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64357/neya-gjnps-cgsnf-tp-06
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Abstract
Teaching Paper: Researcher as Guest Accountability Protocol for Fieldwork Ethics provides a practical safeguarding tool for defining researcher responsibilities when fieldwork access is granted through trust, hospitality, institutional cooperation, or community relationships. It is designed for research conducted in non-profit organisations, faith-based institutions, vulnerable communities, shelters, centres, schools, clinics, and community-based field sites.
The protocol addresses a common ethical imbalance in fieldwork: researchers may enter communities as guests, receive access to people, stories, spaces, and institutional knowledge, and later exercise independent interpretive authority over how those communities are represented. This teaching paper helps clarify the responsibilities attached to being hosted, including respect for access boundaries, transparency about research purpose, accountability to host organisations, safeguarding awareness, and ethical obligations when findings or publication frames move beyond the original fieldwork understanding.
It supports more responsible fieldwork by treating research access not only as permission, but as a relationship of accountability.
About This Teaching Paper
This teaching paper forms part of the Safeguarding Tools for Preventing Research Harm series. It is intended to help researchers and host organisations establish accountability expectations before, during, and after fieldwork, especially in contexts where researchers are welcomed into vulnerable or relationally bounded communities.
This Tool Supports
- clarifying researcher responsibilities as a guest in the field
- defining ethical expectations linked to access, trust, and hospitality
- respecting host organisation boundaries and safeguarding concerns
- identifying obligations when research direction or framing changes
- strengthening accountability between researchers and community partners
- reducing extractive or misaligned forms of fieldwork representation
Intended Users
This teaching paper is intended for researchers, supervisors, ethics committees, safeguarding officers, non-profit leaders, programme directors, community gatekeepers, fieldwork hosts, and institutions supporting research in vulnerable community settings.
Citation
Kazanskaia, A. N. (2026). Teaching Paper: Researcher as Guest Accountability Protocol for Fieldwork Ethics. NEYA Global Journal of Non-Profit Studies. NEYA Global Publishing. https://doi.org/10.64357/neya-gjnps-cgsnf-tp-06
Institutional Use Notice
This teaching paper forms part of the NEYA Global knowledge architecture. Institutional, organisational, professional, training, consulting, curriculum, programme design, research supervision, safeguarding review, fieldwork preparation, or implementation use requires an active license from NEYA Global
