SIS Project Preparation Week 5: Ethics

In this project you will consider some basics of how to conduct research ethically. Adapted from material by Dr. Kara A. Makara, School of Education, University of Glasgow. R. Elmslie 2016

SIS Project Week 5: Research Ethics

Ethical principles 

There are some basic ethical principles, or basic rules, that you should follow when you conduct research.Even though this is only a small classroom research project, it's a good idea to start thinking about these issues before you start your postgraduate programmes, where you will consider them in more depth.Many of these principles are quite obvious and you probably do them already. However, you may not have thought about some others and may need to take a little more care, or make some small changes to the way you're doing or presenting your project.Some other principles may be less familiar to you because they are based on culture.  

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Voluntary participation

The participant should decide on their own that they want to participate in the study. They should feel comfortable to say "no" to taking part in your project.

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Risk

The benefits of the study should be greater than the risks.You must try to avoid any risks to both the participant and yourself.

Risk comes in many forms, including physical injury, the feeling that one is being seen as inferior (not as good as other people), embarrassment or fear; taking part in a badly designed study; giving out (“disclosing”) personal information and data being made public, and many more. There are also risks to the researcher – think about your safety, eg where will you meet people to interview them that is safe?

Informed consent

The participant should clearly understand what the study is about and what their participation will involve. For example, what will they do? When? Why? How long will it take? How will the information they give you be used? If they know about and understand these things, they are informed. They should give their consent (agreement) to participate before the study begins. How? They read a "plain language statement" which explains in simple English what you and they will do, and how the information they give you will be used.For interviews and some observations, they'll sign a consent form too.

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You must keep individual responses private and store data securely.  Do not share results with others until the identity of participants has been taken out so they cannot be identified. In a survey, use averages from the whole sample so individual people can't be identified.When you present information that you got from interviews, give the interviewee a pseudonym (when you don’t use the interviewee’s real name) and be careful to avoid revealing their identity. You will normally tell the interviewee and person who completes the questionnaire that the information they give will be confidential and anonymous.

Confidentiality

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Standards of integrity

There are some important shared values in scientific research. These include:Honesty - show information truthfully.Accuracy - report findings precisely and take care to avoid errors.Efficiency -use resources wisely and avoid waste (including money and time of all participants).Objectivity - let the facts speak for themselves.

Source: Steneck, N. H. 2007. ORI - Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research, Washington D.C. , U.S. Government Printing Office, p.3 

Now try the quiz.

Do the quiz at the link below to test your understanding of the ideas from this resource.  http://loc.llas.ac.uk/lob/1791/view