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Ethical and Methodological Issues Resulting from Recording Lapses in Qualitative Research

Technological difficulties, such as recording lapses and dropped calls, during interviews for qualitative research lead to important ethical and methodological considerations. Using case examples from our own experiences with recording lapses, we walk through some of the questions to consider, including relational ethics and how changes in the data affect the validity of our findings. We argue that how ethical and methodological issues raised by recording lapses are to be handled largely depends on the paradigm in which each study is situated, ranging from postpositivist to constructivist to critical theory. However, we recommend that: (a) participants should be informed about the lost data and play a part in the decision on how to move forward, (b) decisions made due to technological difficulties should be discussed in the findings, and (c) researchers should take precautionary measures to avoid technological difficulties.