Ch. 3: Becoming an Ethical Researcher

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Ch. 3 Becoming an Ethical Researcher

• (Neuman, pp. 61-83)

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THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE
Ethical Research Must Balance Two Priorities
Gaining knowledge and finding a clear answer to a
research question
Protecting research participants and upholding
broader human rights
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Why would a researcher act in an ethically
irresponsible way?

• Lack of awareness
• Pressure to take ethical shortcuts, e.g.,
• Concern for career advancement (in publish or
  perish context)
• Research ambition, will to advance science
• Desire for prestige, to impress friends, family
• Study completion a job requirement
• Ethical principles are general and often lack
  clear, obvious application
• And the odds of being caught are low

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Scientific misconduct

• Scientific misconduct violating basic and
  generally accepted standards of honest scientific
  research, e.g.,
• Research fraud
• Plagiarism

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Research fraud and plagiarism

• Research fraud to invent, falsify or distort
  study data or to lie about how a study was
  conducted.
• Plagiarism using another persons words or ideas
  without giving proper credit and instead passing
  them off as your own.

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Typology of Legal Ethical Actions in Research
(Fig. 3.2)
Ethical

• Legal YES
• Yes Moral and Legal
• No Illegal but Moral

• NO
• Legal but Immoral
• Immoral and Illegal

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ETHICAL ISSUES INVOLVING RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

• There are many grey areas in which researchers
  must balance competing values, but there are some
  clear prohibitions
• Never cause unnecessary harm to participants
• Always secure voluntary consent prior to study
• Never unnecessarily humiliate or degrade
  participants
• Never release personally identifying, harmful
  information

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The Origin of Ethical Principles for Research
with Humans

• Medical experiments in Nazi Germany Japan in
  the 1940s
• Tuskegee syphilis study by the US Public Health
  Service
• US military studies of radioactive substances,
  hallucinogenic drugs, etc.
• Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital cancer studies in
  1960s
• Willowbrook School case, injecting children with
  developmental disabilities with hepatitis virus

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Protect Research Participants from Harm

• Social research can cause harm in several ways
• Physical harm
• Psychological harm
• Legal harm

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Participation Must Be Voluntary and Informed

• principle of voluntary consent never force
  anyone to participate in a research study,
  participants should explicitly and voluntarily
  agree to participate.
• informed consent an agreement in which
  participants state they are willing to be in a
  study and know what the research procedure will
  involve.

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Obtaining Informed Consent

• Informed consent statements contain the
  following
• 1) Brief description of research purpose,
  procedure and duration
• 2) Statement of risks or discomfort associated
  with participation
• 3) Guarantee of anonymity and confidentiality of
  data records
• 4) Identification of researcher and contact info
• 5) Statement that participation is voluntary and
  participant can withdraw at any time
• 6) Statement of alternative procedures that may
  be used
• 7) Statement of benefits or compensation
• 8) Offer to provide summary of findings after
  completion of study

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Limits to Using Deception in Research

• Deception is acceptable only within strict
  limits, if you do the following
• Show that it has a clear specific methodological
  purpose
• Use it only to the minimal degree necessary
• Obtain informed consent and do not misrepresent
  any risks
• Always debrief (i.e., explain the actual
  conditions to participants afterward)

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Avoid Coercion

• Coercion can be physical, social, legal,
  professional, financial, or other pressure
  applied to get a person to agree to participate

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Privacy, Anonymity and Confidentiality

• Research must protect privacy of participants,
  only violating privacy to the minimal degree
  necessary and only for legitimate research
  purposes
• Additionally, information must be protected from
  public disclosure to ensure
• Anonymity
• Confidentiality

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Anonymity and Confidentiality

• anonymity not connecting a participants name or
  identifying details to information collected
  about him or her
• confidentiality holding information in
  confidence or not making it known to the public

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Anonymity and Confidentiality (contd)

• Anonymity with confidentiality conduct survey
  with 100 people but do not know participants
  names and only release data in aggregate
• Anonymity without confidentiality conduct field
  research study and learn a lot about person X but
  never learn persons name report all details
  about the person publicly but alter details to
  make it impossible to discover persons name
• Confidentiality without anonymity conduct survey
  of 100 people and have each persons name listed
  on his/her questionnaire but only publicly
  release data in aggregate
• Neither anonymity not confidentiality
  (unethical) conduct survey of 100 people and
  have each persons name on questionnaire
  publicly release a persons answers with the name
  or with enough details to allow easy discovery of
  persons name

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Anonymity and Confidentiality (contd)

• Exceptions to privacy protection
• Clear, immediate danger to a persons safety,
  e.g.,
• plans to suicide or to injure or kill another
  person
• information about child maltreatment or abuse

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Extra Protections for Special Populations

• Some research participants are unable to give
  true voluntary informed consent, e.g., students,
  prison inmates, employees, military personnel,
  the homeless, welfare recipients, children, or
  the developmentally disabled - special
  populations
• special populations people lacking the cognitive
  competency or full freedom to give true informed
  consent

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Extra Protections for Special Populations (contd)

• If researchers wish to have incompetent people
  participate, they must meet two minimal
  conditions
• Persons legal guardian/parent grants informed
  consent permission
• All standard ethical rules to protect
  participants from harm are closely followed

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Formal Protections for Research Participants

• In the US, the DHHS Office for the Protection
  from Research Risks issues regulations to protect
  research participants
• Most local governments, hospitals, universities,
  and private companies model internal policies on
  federal rules
• US government rules require the creation of
  institutional review boards at all research
  institutes, medical facilities, colleges, and
  universities where research with human subjects
  occurs

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Institutional Review Board

• institutional review board (IRB) a committee of
  researchers and community members that oversees,
  monitors, and reviews the impact of research
  procedures on human participants
• Some forms of research are exempt from a formal,
  full IRB review, e.g., educational tests, normal
  educational practice, most nonsensitive survey
  questionnaires, observations of public behavior,
  studies of existing public data in which
  individuals cannot be identified

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Codes of ethics

• Most professionals (e.g., physicians, attorneys,
  family counselors, social workers, etc.) have
  organizations that developed a written code of
  ethics
• code of ethics a written, formal set of
  professional standards that provides guidance
  when ethical questions arise in practice
• Most professional social science associations
  have codes of ethics that represent a consensus
  of professionals on ethics
• Although not all researchers agree on every
  ethical issue, there are common ethical standards
  among members of a profession

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ETHICS AND SPONSORS OF RESEARCH

• Special ethical issues arise when a sponsor pays
  for research, especially applied research
• Limits on how to conduct studies
• Some are legitimate, some not
• Suppressing findings
• In sponsored research, you want to negotiate
  conditions for releasing findings prior to
  beginning the study or signing a contract
• whistle-blowing when a researcher (or other
  employee) sees unethical behavior and, after
  unsuccessful attempts to get superiors to end it,
  goes public to expose the wrongdoing

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POLITICAL INFLUENCES ON RESEARCH

• The powerful in society try to control or censor
  research out of fear that free, unbiased research
  might uncover something damaging to their
  interests
• Theres a close connection between unimpeded,
  open scientific inquiry and the ideals of open
  public debate, democracy and freedom of
  expression
• Censoring and controlling research is
  characteristic of dictatorships and totalitarian
  regimes

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VALUE-FREE AND OBJECTIVE RESEARCH

• Multiple meanings
• Alternative goals
• Devoid of values