ABSTRACT
Anthropologists have an ethical responsibility for ensuring the integrity, preservation, and protection of their work. This obligation applies both to individual and collaborative or team research. Researchers have a responsibility to use appropriate methods to ensure the confidentiality and security of field notes, recordings, samples or other primary data and the identities of participants. Anthropology has aptly been described as the most scientific of the humanities and humanistic of the sciences. Preservation of records requires more than retention, however, and may also imply permanent curation and archiving beyond the professional life of the anthropologist generating the research results and the material on which these results are based. Ownership and control of records may be complicated and contentious, due to claims for the results of work for hire by sponsoring entities, claims by research collaborators or participants, claims by state entities or agencies, or intellectual property issues, including tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
