Lessons learned: The long view

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially altered the fabric of life around the globe, raising crucial questions about the nature of language usage in person and online. But as researchers embark on new studies (or continuations of pre-COVID research), just as essential are considerations of what our responsibilities as researchers are to our participants now. In this article, we share our reflections upon the experience of conducting research in two different post-disaster contexts: after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand. We describe the issues faced by researchers and participants alike in these locales and we recount the decisions that we made, as many of the same decision processes are being faced by researchers currently navigating data collection due to COVID-19 and its aftermath. These decisions are of course contextually dependent, though our examples draw from two very different situations, comparing and contrasting how various forces, timelines, and regionally specific issues may come into play for researchers in a context of upheaval. In this "long view"essay, we provide a retrospective account of practical tips and ethical considerations for researchers embarking on a similar track.