Covert Participant Observation

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Abstract
EDITOR'S NOTE: Doing covert research remains a problem for researchers trying to resolve the ethical and practical dilemmas inherent in "secret" observation. Richard Hilbert suggests that not all covert participant observation research is necessarily unethical, although such research does invariably create its own particular problems. Among these are the need to maintain a credible identity and the problems of gathering data in an unobtrusive, yet accurate manner. Drawing from his own experiences in covert research, Hilbert describes selected strategies, often coinciding with the observed activities, which he himself found useful in his own research