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Lecture 3 Research ethics
Research Methods in The Social Sciences (STAT2009)
University of Southampton
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Research ethics
What is ethics?
Ethics – moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity - moral focus, not necessarily to do with law o Values and rules – issues of right and wrong o Moral imperative o Good practice: integrity, honesty, safety Research ethics – the ethics of the planning, conduct, and reporting of research
Why do we need to worry about ethics in research?
In relation to social research we all have an ethical responsibility to:
Promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness o Strong link between ethics and quality in research – if you don’t have trust, how can you have reliable results coming back in? if we repeatedly break trust/unmoral behaviour, it will be harder to get people involved in social research Try to ensure justice and equity in research o Distribution of burdens and benefits of research – some are more likely to be researched on, will affect results as they will not want to participate – need to spread burden of research Ensure respect for persons and their autonomy and protection for those with diminished autonomy – have some control over what is happening to them in research Maintain the cooperation of participants for future researchers Upholding the standards of ethical research is ultimately the responsibility of each individual researcher Obligation to represent your institution with integrity Responsibilities to participants, their communities, self and colleagues, institution, wider research community – what is ethically correct may differ from place to place and over time - no set rules on ethics – more common sense understanding on how to treat other individuals
Ethical considerations: planning
Permission to do research: o All academic research needs permission from an ethical committee within your institution o May also need permission of other authority or regulatory body i. DBS check to research in a public institution – legal requirement – sometimes morals and law cross over o May need permission of individual gate-keepers i. heads of organizations e. head teachers Reciprocity: o Will the participants (or their community) get anything out of the research? – research may be answering a niche subject which may not have any benefit to the subjects o Are you going to report your results back to your participants? Think about what form you are going to do this in e. get a report back
Ethical considerations: conduct
Voluntary participation: o Invading privacy not regarded as acceptable, respondents should be ASKED to participate o Free from coercion/pressure to participate – especially if the research is being conducted by some authority figure i. a workplace study – can also be perceived coercion (just as problematic) e. going to CEO to ask employees Right to withdraw: o Free to withdraw at any time and without explanation o Need to make clear there is no penalty for withdrawing i. in health research make clear that treatment will not be affected by participation Informed consent: o Participant is given full information about the study to enable them to make a fully informed decision to participate or not – all the potential risks, how the research is used, where it will be published – need more than a ‘yes’ o Participant information sheet and an authority sheet which the participant has to sign to give their consent have a responsibility that the participant actually reads them – if you don’t think the participant has understood cannot take part o For a participant to be considered ‘informed’ they need the following information: Who is conducting study? Potential risks for participant What the purpose of the study is What will happen to the data? How has participant been selected Assurance of confidentiality
Informed consent
Issues to think about:
How you will get consent – written, oral, tape recorded? o Written informed consent: informed consent form What if participants have diminished capacity to consent or can’t give INFORMED consent? o i. children, mentally impaired participants, extremely elderly, etc ask guardians What about covert methods? o Depends very much on the situation e. can be acceptable in public places not often done e. football crowds – public environment If we think participants may have diminished capacity to consent, we assess their competence: o By status – groups such as adults or very young children o By function – through tests of reasoning or other ability o By outcome – if the person makes a choice, which the assessor believes will lead to a reasonable outcome, competence is assumed Comes down to a judgement call on behalf of the researcher
Ethical considerations: conduct
Beneficence – researchers should have the welfare of the research participant as a goal of any research study
o If you are asking questions that could reveal difficulties where you might need to act to ensure that the participant, or someone identified by them, can access help or support to remain safe must be maintained after research i. access to counselling o You should establish a plan in advance for what you are going to do o It should not be the decision of one person alone to breach a participant’s confidentiality o Can make this explicit as part of the informed consent
Ethics for social science students at the University of Southampton
Dissertations o Every student in the School has to apply for Ethical Approval to carry out their dissertation o You apply online using the ERGO: Ethics and Research Governance Online system ergo2.soton.ac/ - click on the Template Documents for all the forms and useful guidance documents o You have to apply for ethical permission whether you are collecting primary data, or you are using secondary data o If you are using secondary data, some of the ethical issues will be out of your direct control but that does not mean they are not important and do not need to be considered
Who needs ethics approval?
You will need to apply for ethical approval for your research if you plan to: o Collect data using questionnaires or (online) surveys o Conduct interviews, observations, focus group discussions or similar qualitative approaches o Conduct experiments on humans o Analyse existing secondary data (such as survey, census or administrative data; medical records; social media or other internet data) if these data are at the level of individuals rather than aggregated, even where such data are anonymised and/or publicly available with substantial ethical considerations.
What does NOT need ethics approval?
Analysis of aggregated individual level data (e. GDP, labour force participation rates, fertility rates...) Analysis of data not relating to individuals (e. data on firms or businesses; financial data) Meta-analyses (i. the analysis of studies) Literature reviews or reviews/analyses of reports, policies, documents, meeting minutes, newspaper articles, films Analysis of published biographies, diaries, letters, interviews. From: Advice on Applying for Ethics Approval (on Blackboard or through ERGO)
Lecture 3 Research ethics
Module: Research Methods in The Social Sciences (STAT2009)
University: University of Southampton
