Ethics of access in contemporary applied linguistics projects: New challenges in the researcher–practitioner relationship.

This article focuses on the communicative dimensions of research ethics in the early stages of complex, multi-agency projects, illustrated through the Digital Dialogue project studying digital counselling interactions within the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). It highlights three key ethical activities: joint problematization of research questions with practitioners, negotiation of the research topic among multiple institutional stakeholders with differing interests, and collaborative responses to emergent ethical dilemmas during data access and collection. The authors argue that ethical research practice in such contexts extends beyond formal procedures to include ongoing reflexivity and critical engagement with the researcher–practitioner relationship, emphasizing the importance of micro-ethics as situated, communicative, and context-dependent. This approach aims to better prepare researchers to navigate the complexities of gaining access to sensitive data and maintaining ethical integrity in multi-level institutional collaborations.