Studying online interpersonal communication using online forums: epistemological, ethical, and methodological perspectives

With conversational platforms like online forums offering researchers insightful deposits of human traces, considering the opportunities and limits of studying online interpersonal communication is crucial for social scientists. Building on lessons learned from a personal research journey, this paper presents the rationale behind using natural online data, ethical considerations, and practical advice to choose a context of data collection, generate and analyze a proper database. The contribution homes in on epistemological, ethical, and methodological perspectives to provide scholars with guidance on some strategies to select, read, and scrutinize online interactional data in an ethically informed and methodologically sound fashion.