An additional consideration when planning and conducting fieldwork is how you may handle interactions with landowners and other members of the public.  Always be respectful in your personal interactions in the field.  If you encounter members of the public or landowners, identify yourself and be ready to explain what you’re doing.  Follow best practices in advance and always seek permission to access private property instead of begging for forgiveness after you’ve been caught.

Team members may want to visually distinguish themselves as members of a research team by wearing clothing and field gear that signal institutional or organizational affiliations.  Team members should always be prepared to provide “credentials” or documents of affiliation, including student identification cards, business cards with the supervisor’s name and contact information, or letters from the supervisor on institutional letterhead.

When team members are not driving vehicles that have visible institutional affiliations, researchers should also have stickers or magnets to place on the exterior of their field vehicle.  You may also want to place official letters on institutional letterhead or business cards on the interior of the vehicle dashboard.

It is also important to help develop strategies and practices to employ when team members encounter strangers while in the field.  Some team members may be interested in training opportunities that increase personal safety, like self defense.

Team members should prepare and learn how to communicate for themselves and advocate or intervene for a team member.  You should be prepared to explain the work to a wider and potentially more skeptical audience.

It is also a good idea to develop a plan for when interactions with the public become negative or unsafe along with a way to document negative community interactions.  Researchers should feel empowered to choose to leave a field site as soon as they feel unsafe.

It is also important to never conduct field work on a property without permission from the owner and discussions with individuals who are in charge of the day-to-day management of the site.

Some team members may be the target of harassment during field work by someone outside the field crew.  Team leaders and team members must be prepared to intervene immediately by actively and visibly supporting the harassed team member.  Bystander training can be important in teaching these skills.

Interactions can turn negative or unsafe at any point.  If a researcher finds themselves in a situation that they feel is unsafe or will become unsafe, researchers should be able to leave the field site at their own discretion.