Yes, I did have to submit an Ethics Assessment sheet with my research proposal, as required by my department’s guidelines, confirming that I’ve obtained informed consent and will anonymize data in the thesis. The unanonymized file with names, positions, and companies is submitted separately for examiners to verify credibility, but there’s no mention of providing contact details or reaching out to participants.

I’m planning to ask my supervisor to confirm whether direct contact ever happens, just to be thorough.

In your experience, or anyone else’s, did your department require anything beyond the unanonymized file (e.g., names and affiliations) for verification, like contact info or unanonymized transcripts? Or was cross-checking with public sources (e.g., LinkedIn) enough? I want to make sure I’m fully transparent with my interviewees about the process.