1 Ch. 3: Becoming an Ethical Researcher (pp )

2 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

3 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…

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

5 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.

6 Typology of Legal & Ethical Actions in Research (Fig. 3.2) LegalYES Yes Moral and Legal No Illegal but Moral NO Legal but Immoral Immoral and Illegal Ethical

7 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

8 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

9 Protect Research Participants from Harm Social research can cause harm in several ways: Physical harm Psychological harm Legal harm

10 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.

11 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

12 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)

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

14 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

15 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

16 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

17 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

18 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

19 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

20 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

21 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

22 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

23 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

24 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

25 VALUE-FREE AND OBJECTIVE RESEARCH Multiple meanings Alternative goals Devoid of values