Ethical and legal issues of conducting nursing research via the Internet.

In February 2001, President Clinton's Information Technology Advisory Commission reported that information technology has the potential to advance biomedical research. As nursing research via the Internet expands, important ethical and legal issues need to be addressed. The purpose of this article is to report one researcher's journey in attempting to conduct ethical and legal nursing research via the Internet. The ethical and legal issues needing attention are discussed. Potential guidelines are provided for researchers wanting to use Internet technology.