Meeting appropriate ethical standards for research involving human participants, mean ensuring confidentiality. It is assumed that the research participant will accept the safeguarding protocols necessary to ensure confidentiality. This assumption however oversimplifies the variation of motivations that goes into participants’ decisions to participate in research. Drawing on reflections from my fieldwork experience in Ghana, I answer the questions: Why do research participants reject confidentiality? What ethical position can one take when the researcher and the researched have conflicting perspectives about confidentiality? I contend that participants with personal stake refuse confidentiality when they want to be acknowledged for their data. Rejecting confidentiality is however, embedded in the individual perspective, cultural, and political context of the study area. The ethical concerns of such refusal can be ameliorated if confidentiality is nuanced to include six categorically distinct but mutually non-exclusive stages: research-planning, ongoing-information, writing-up, reality-after-research, differential-disseminations, and no-confidentiality-clause. The paper further argues that whilst maintaining institutional allegiance in this matter is crucial, employing confidentiality should lie at the intersection of participants’ motivation for taking part in the research, the socio-cultural-specific-context of the study location and the nature of the topic being explored.

满足涉及人类参与者的研究的适当道德标准，意味着确保机密性。假定研究参与者将接受确保机密性所必需的保护协议。然而，这种假设过分简化了参与者决定参与研究的动机变化。根据我在加纳的实地考察经验的反思，我回答了以下问题：为什么研究参与者拒绝保密？当研究人员和被研究者对保密的观点存在冲突时，人们可以采取什么样的伦理立场？我争辩说，当有个人利益的参与者想要承认他们的数据时，他们会拒绝保密。然而，拒绝保密是植根于个人观点、文化、和研究区域的政治背景。如果将机密性细化为包括六个截然不同但相互不排他的阶段：研究计划、持续信息、撰写、研究后现实、差异传播和无-保密条款。该论文进一步认为，虽然在这个问题上保持机构的忠诚度至关重要，但保密应基于参与者参与研究的动机、研究地点的社会文化特定背景和研究性质的交集。正在探讨的话题。持续信息、书面记录、研究后现实、差异传播和非保密条款。该论文进一步认为，虽然在这个问题上保持机构的忠诚度至关重要，但保密应基于参与者参与研究的动机、研究地点的社会文化特定背景和研究性质的交集。正在探讨的话题。持续信息、书面记录、研究后现实、差异传播和非保密条款。该论文进一步认为，虽然在这个问题上保持机构的忠诚度至关重要，但保密应基于参与者参与研究的动机、研究地点的社会文化特定背景和研究性质的交集。正在探讨的话题。