What a researcher can to do to avoid the risk of loss of reputation for human subjects revolves on the co-axes of confidentiality and anonymity. There are two sources of compromised security: the researcher and staff, and the subjects themselves. Where there is the possibility of anyone associating a face or name or other unique individual characteristic with participation, there can be no anonymity.
If participation is restricted to persons with an intrinsically stigmatizing (reputation damaging) characteristic, such as HIV+ status, and if one research subject can associate the face (etc.) of another research subject with the research project, there can be no anonymity OR confidentiality.
There are often good reasons for the researcher to be "blind" to the variables in research, since it is often possible for the attitude of the researcher to registered the results through differences in behaviors toward subjects. In the search for ways to reduce risks in order to achieve an excess of benefit over risks, researchers and the IRB may have to modify the relationships between researchers and subjects or among subjects to achieve greater security.
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