Responsible research begins with a stop/go boundary.

The first methods decision is sometimes to stop. The question is whether the activity may proceed as desk-based work or must enter an institutional, ethics, regulatory or data-governance pathway.

1. Start in the green lane

Public-source evidence synthesis, analysis of genuinely open and non-identifiable data, methods notes and carefully bounded editorial work can often begin without interacting with participants. They still require lawful use, accurate attribution, conflict checks, records and truthful publication labels.

2. Pause in the amber lane

Some projects appear public but carry hidden restrictions: a dataset may require an agreement; a social-media post may contain personal data; a programme report may be confidential; a student project may overlap a thesis or supervisor-owned study. Clarify ownership, permission, institutional expectations and privacy before proceeding.

3. Stop in the red lane

Interaction with human participants, identifiable personal records, biological samples, clinical procedures, confidential programme data or regulated fieldwork generally requires formal determination and, where applicable, approval before recruitment, access or analysis begins.

A well-written consent paragraph cannot repair research that began without the institution, review or authority it required.

4. Independent does not mean isolated

A credible project may need a host institution, supervisor, principal investigator, ethics committee, statistician, subject specialist, data custodian or community partner. Bringing in the right people is part of research design, not an admission of weakness.

5. Preserve the determination

Record the question asked, information supplied, authority consulted, response received, conditions imposed and date. If the design changes, reassess. A public-data analysis can become participant research when follow-up interviews are added.

6. Publish the boundary

A public output should state whether it used only public sources, whether ethics review was required, what approvals or permissions applied, how data were protected and what limitations follow from the chosen lane.