If you have taken part in any of my research, you should feel confident that your contribution will remain anonymous.

To anonymize your contribution, I follow five rules:

1. All names of people and organizations are changed to pseudonyms.
2. I will only discuss age, gender and ethnic background if these are relevant to the story being told. I will only ever use your stated gender or ethnicity, and I will only use broad age-ranges, rather than specific ages (e.g. ‘in her 20s’ rather than ‘she was 27 years old’)
3. I only ever discuss locations at the neighborhood level. More specific details, such as street names, the names of particular venues, or identifiable descriptions of specific buildings are all either left out, or altered to be unrecognizable. (The exception to this is for large scale public events)
4. I avoid all descriptions that could be specifically identifying (e.g. a unique tattoo, the design of a logo)
5. All participants have the right to ask that other details also be excluded.

If you have shared personal stories or opinions, there is a chance that people close to you, who recognize these stories or views, may then recognize who you are from your contribution. However, you should feel confident your identity is protected from strangers, and that I have only published material that you have been comfortable to share. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch.