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Ch. 3: Becoming an Ethical Researcher

(pp. 61-83)

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THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE

Gaining knowledge and finding a clear answer to a research question

Protecting research participants and upholding broader human rights

Ethical Research Must Balance Two Priorities

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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

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 person’s 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)

Legal YES

Yes Moral and Legal

No Illegal but Moral

NO

Legal but Immoral

Immoral and Illegal

Ethical

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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 Never proceed without voluntary consent Never cause unnecessary humiliation 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

duration2) Statement of risks or discomfort associated with

participation3) Guarantee of anonymity and confidentiality of data

records4) Identification of researcher and contact info5) Statement that participation is voluntary and participant

can withdraw at any time6) Statement of alternative procedures that may be used7) Statement of benefits or compensation8) 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 participant’s 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 (cont’d) 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 person’s name; report all details about the person publicly but alter details to make it impossible to discover person’s name

Confidentiality without anonymity: conduct survey of 100 people and have each person’s 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 person’s name on questionnaire; publicly release a person’s answers with the name or with enough details to allow easy discovery of person’s name

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Anonymity and Confidentiality (cont’d) Exceptions to privacy protection:

Clear, immediate danger to a person’s 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 (cont’d) If researchers wish to have “incompetent”

people participate, they must meet two minimal conditions:

1) Person’s legal guardian/parent grants informed consent permission

2) 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

There’s 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