Note on ethics and personal data protection for the KODEM-panels
This is a note to aid those that need information on IRB approval or similar for publishing in scientific journals.
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The survey panels in KODEM deals with human subjects and follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to this, we have conducted Data Protection Impact Assessment s(DPIA), which is approved by the University of Bergen, and was done in cooperation with Sikt.
In Norway, a separate IRB approval is not a formal requirement, however, with the onset of KODEM, so from the spring/summer wave of 2025, the scientific commitees of the panels are also Institutional Review Boards (IRB). The IRBs will review the survey questions to assure the protection of the rights and welfare of the human subjects, focusing on research ethics and panel care and maintenance.
The KODEM panels are, from 2025, financed by the Norwegian Research Council and the 10 consortium institutions in KODEM. The data are provided by the University of Bergen, prepared and made available by a subcontractor (Ideas2Evidence), and distributed by the UiB and Sikt (Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research).
Invitations to the panels differ for first time recruitment. For the Citizen Panel, invitations are sent by mail and sms, to a randomly drawn population of inhabitants in Norway. For the Panel of Public Administrators, emails are sent to publicly available work emails and to entire units. For the Panel of Elected Representatives, invitations are sent by mail and email, to addresses from Kommuneforlaget and addresses found at the pages of the municipality, county, Storting or Sameting.
Data processing follows GDPR article 6, no. 1, letter e (necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller), and article 9 n. 2 letter j (necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject).
Further participation in the panel is by provided written consent, all active respondents are invited by email., and the respondents' data are always treated confidentially. They shall be anonymous in all publicly available data and publications.
Participants receive no payment for participating, but in each wave of the Norwegian Citizen Panel there is a lottery, where three people win a gift card valued at 8000 NOK.
DIGSSCORE and the panels are financed by the University of Bergen (UiB), the data are provided by the UiB, prepared and made available by a subcontractor (Ideas2Evidence), and distributed by the UiB and Sikt (Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research).
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