Chapter 6 Designing Experiments

Is it ethical? A promising new drug has been developed for treating cancer in humans. Researchers want to administer the drug to animal subjects to see if there are any potentially serious side effects before giving the drug to human subjects. Are companies discriminating against some individuals in the hiring process? To find out, researchers prepare several equivalent resumes for fictitious job applicants, with the only difference being the sex of the applicant. They send the fake resumes to the companies advertising positions and keep track of the number of males and females who are contacted for interviews.

Section 6.3 Data Ethics

Are sham surgeries ethical? Law requires well-designed experiments to show that new drugs work and are safe. Not so with surgery! A well-designed experiment would involve a "sham surgery" as a placebo. Is this ethical??? Doctors are charged to "First,do no harm"

First principles of basic data ethics in stitutional review board informed consent confidential

Institutional review boards Purpose is not to decide whether a proposed study will produce valuable information or whether it is statistically sound Purpose is "to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects recruited to participate in research activities"

Informed consent Informed - subjects must know in advance the nature of a study and any risk of harm it may bring, must know the scope of the study and how much time it will take Consent - subjects must agree in writing to participate in the study, must be at least 18

Confidentiality Must protect a subject's privacy by keeping all data about individuals confidential Not the same as anonymity - this means the subjects names are not known even to the director of the study (rarely happens), prevents any chance for follow-up Best practice is to separate identity of subjects from the rest of the data

Clinical trials Experiments that study the effectiveness of medical treatments on actual patients

Should they be allowed? Randomized comparative experiments are the only way to see true effects of new treatments. Clinical trials produce great benefits, but most go to future patients. They also pose risks, these are born by the trial subjects. The interest of the subject must always prevail over the interests of science and society

Behavioral and social science experiments Direct risks to experimental subjects are less acute than in medical experiments, but so are the possible benefits to the subjects Consent required unless a study merely observes behavior in a public place Deception allowed only when necessary to the study, doesn't hide information that might influence subject's willingness to participate, and is explained to subjects as soon as possible