“We Are Alone in the House”: A Case Study Addressing Researcher Safety and Risk

Historically, the safety of research participants has taken precedence in health research. More recently, however, in response to anecdotal reports, there is growing concern for researcher safety, which has resulted in policy development. Also, there is a small body of empirical discussion emerging. In this article, we present a case study example of a particular incident that happened to one of the authors during the course of data collection. We present this as a case study using two sources of data to support the narrative. We utilise extracts from the original interview in which the threat to safety occurred, and this is supplemented by an interview with the transcriptionist who transcribed the threatening interview. Using thematic analysis, we found three key themes from the data: physical threat, emotional responses, and managing risk. Our findings suggest that despite reflectively considering and adhering to valuable protocols relating to risk assessment, unprecedented events may still occur. We recommend, therefore, that research teams develop strategies to manage the implications and impact of research involvement to maintain a healthy research team.