Research Ethics 1
Introduction
As you carry out your research and begin to write your dissertation, you will be conscious of the assessment requirements, rules and regulations set down by your institution (see section on Plagiarism). However, there are other rules which all researchers, whatever their subject, must follow, rules of ethics and morality. In this section, you will learn the distinction between these two categories in an academic context, and find guidelines for conducting a variety of types of research.
What do we mean by research ethics?
The terms ethics and morals tend to be used interchangeably. Francis (1999) makes a useful distinction between the two:
- Morals generally refer to an unwritten set of values that provide a frame of reference that we use to help our decision-making and regulate our behaviour.
- Ethics generally refer to a written code of value principles that we use in a particular context.
Research ethics are therefore the principles that we use to make decisions about what is acceptable practice in any research project.
Why do we need ethical codes?
Research participants have moral and legal rights and it is important that as researchers we do not violate these rights. Sometimes enthusiasm for the research topic can lead researchers to pay less attention to the experience of the research participant as they are so focussed on answering their research question. A code of research ethics is required to ensure that there are agreed standards of acceptable behaviour for researchers, which protect participants' moral and legal rights.
Research ethics codes also ensure that there is good scientific practice in research. It is essential that the public should be able to trust the results of research programmes as these findings may impact significantly on their lives. Having researchers conform to codes of research ethics protects against scientific dishonesty and fraudulent results.
What are the basic principles for ethical research?
- Research studies have to comply with all legal requirements. This includes the data protection legislation and appropriate screening of researchers working with vulnerable groups of people. Different licensing requirements apply to research involving animals or biomedical research.
- Research is required to comply with the commonly agreed international standards for good practice in research.
These are laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and can be categorised as:
- Beneficence (Do positive good)
- Non-malfeasance (Do no harm)
- Informed consent
- Confidentiality/Anonymity
Many professional bodies such as the British Sociological Association and the British Psychological Society have produced their own ethical codes.
What does this mean for my research project?
At the outset you have to bear in mind that your overarching responsibility is to protect the rights and dignity of all your research participants.
Research participants
One of the first questions needs to be about the participants you wish to recruit. Do you wish to undertake research with what are termed 'vulnerable' participants? Vulnerable participants are defined as the following:
- Infants and children under the age of eighteen or sixteen if they are employed (Criminal Justice and Court Services Act, 2000).
- Vulnerable adults, defined as:
- People with learning or communication difficulties
- Patients in hospital or under the care of social services
- People with mental illness including those with addictions to drugs and alcohol
If you wish to recruit vulnerable participants as defined above then you need to consider where you will be interacting with them. If you wish to undertake research with vulnerable populations that require you to be on your own with the individual in a private interview room or the like then you will need to undergo Criminal Records Bureau Screening. This will take some time, and may engender some cost, so you need to plan for this if it is necessary for your research. The school or institution where you are undertaking your research is also likely to insist on this if you are having private unsupervised access to vulnerable research participants.
This does not mean that you cannot do research with these populations. It may be that you can arrange supervised access to your research participants. For example you may interact with children in a public place, such as the corner of a classroom, or in the presence of a teaching assistant, or in some other public venue within the institution provided you are not alone with the participant for significant amounts of time. These are issues you will have to discuss when arranging access to your research participants.
There are several other factors related to research ethics that you have to consider when designing your research project.
- consent
- protection of participants
- debriefing
- confidentiality
- observational research
- deception
- withdrawal from the research
- data storage.
Consent
Where possible, participants should be informed about the nature of the study. All of the aspects of the research that are likely to affect their willingness to become participants should be disclosed. This might include the time it is likely to take, particularly if you require significant amounts of their time. You are seeking to get informed consent from your participants so they need to be adequately briefed. For research involving vulnerable participants getting informed consent may involve briefing parents, teachers or carers about the study.
Many studies now use a Participant Information Sheet to brief potential participants about the study. An example of the typical layout of a Participant Information Sheet is provided at the end of this section. After reading the Participant Information Sheet, participants should be given the opportunity to ask any questions. After this they can be asked to complete a consent form confirming that they have read and understood the information about the study and that they agree to participate. An example of a Consent Form is also provided at the end of the section.
For standard questionnaire studies, where the topic of the research is not a particularly sensitive issue, it may be sufficient to include a description of your study at the start of your questionnaire, completion of the questionnaire implying consent. Again, your supervisor will be able to advise you if you are uncertain.
Observational research
Unless the participants give their consent to being observed, observational research must only take place where those observed could normally expect to be observed by strangers.
Observational studies must not violate the individual's privacy and psychological well-being. You should also be sensitive to any cultural differences in definitions of public and private space.
Protection of participants
The Declaration of Helsinki, discussed earlier, provides the guiding principles here. As a researcher you must take care at all times to protect your participants from physical and mental harm. If potentially distressing questions may be asked, participants must have the right not to answer these questions and this must be made clear to them at the start. If negative consequences might ensue then the researcher has to detect and remove these effects. This might for example involve having telephone numbers of help lines that participants could contact if they wanted to discuss the issues further. In research with children, you must not discuss the results you obtain from individual children with teachers and parents. In all cases you can only report back your anonymised results.
Deception
In most social science research, deception should not be necessary. Sometimes, however, participants may modify their behaviour if they know what the researcher is looking for, so that by giving the full explanation to participants you cannot collect reliable data. Deception should only be used when no other method can be found for collecting reliable data and when the seriousness of the question justifies it. A distinction is made between deliberately deceiving participants and withholding of some information.
Deliberate deception is rarely justifiable. Withholding of information does occur more frequently. This might mean, for example, giving your questionnaire a general title such as An Exploration of Social Attitudes rather than saying which attitudes in particular you are interested in. The guiding principle is taken to be the likely reaction of participants when the deception is revealed. If participants are likely to be angry or upset in some way then deception should not occur. If deception is involved then you need to seek ethical approval for your study.
Debriefing
When deception has occurred, debriefing is particularly emphasised, but it should be a part of all research to monitor the experience of the participants for any unanticipated negative effects. This may involve providing participants with written information describing the study and/or the contact details of help lines or counselling services or health care agencies that participants can contact if they wanted to discuss the issues further. Participants should also know how to contact you after the study. Generally the inclusion of your university e-mail address is the best option.
Withdrawal from the research
Sometimes individuals may get distressed during an interview for example, and you must make it clear that they can withdraw from the study at any time without giving any reason. It may be that a participant decides after an interview that they have said things that they now regret. Participants should be able to withdraw their interview data in cases such as this. It is good practice in your participant information sheet to give a cut-off date up to which participant data can be withdrawn. This will normally be up to the time when you intend to start your data analysis.
Confidentiality
Here you must conform to data protection legislation, which means that information obtained from a research participant is confidential (unless you have agreed in advance that this is not to be the case). This means that you must take care to anonymise data that you obtain from participants, say in interview studies. To do this, you must not only change names but also change any details that might make the person easily identifiable. This should be done at the transcription stage. You are required to assure your participants that this will occur.
Data storage
If you are collecting data from participants who are not anonymous, then you must take special precautions to ensure that the data is stored appropriately to ensure the participants' anonymity. This means that tapes should be kept securely and they should not be labelled with participants' real names. You will have to keep your data sets until after you have passed your degree in case you are required to produce them by your university. Interview tapes and other confidential material should be disposed of carefully when no longer required.
Will my research need to be approved by a research ethics committee?
To some extent this will depend on the arrangements within your own university, however if your research involves the National Health Service (NHS) then it will need to undergo special ethical review even if you think there are no particular ethical issues involved. NHS procedures are outlined later in the section.
Guidelines for relatively standard research proposals
While it is not possible to provide definitive guidelines, scrutiny of these questions will help you decide whether your research proposal has special ethical issues that result in it requiring ethical review by your departmental/University Research Ethics Committee or equivalent. Your supervisor will also provide you with further advice on this.
1. Does it involve human participants and/or data from human participants? (Yes/No)
2. Does it involve vulnerable participants as defined below? (Yes/No)
- Infants and children under the age of eighteen.
- People with learning or communication difficulties.
- Patients in hospital or under the care of social services.
- People in custody or on probation.
- People engaged in illegal activities such as drug abuse. (British Psychological Society, 2004).
3. Does it involve sensitive topics? (I.e. topics likely to cause significant embarrassment or discomfort to participants or topics related to illegal activity.) (Yes/No)
4. Does it involve collection of data that is not anonymous? (Yes/No)
If you have answered YES to questions 2 and 3, you will normally be required to submit an ethics proforma for ethical approval by your departmental/University Research Ethics Committee or equivalent. An example of a typical ethics proforma used for an undergraduate project is included at the end of the chapter.
Guidelines for the special case when NHS access is required for a research study
The NHS has clearly defined the criteria for NHS involvement as research involving:
- Patients and users of the NHS.
- Relatives or carers of patients and users of the NHS.
- Access to data, organs, or other bodily material or past and present NHS patients.
- Foetal material and IVF involving NHS patients.
- The recently dead in NHS premises.
- The use of, or potential access to, NHS premises or facilities.
- NHS staff: recruited as research participants by virtue of their professional role.
All projects with NHS involvement have to be presented for ethical review to an NHS Research Ethics Committee. Full details of this process and forms for doing this can be accessed at http://www.corec.org.uk.
Guidelines for the special case when access to participants, staff or social care premises is required for a research study
While currently there are no special procedures for this type of research study, the Department of Health Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care (2001) requires that research ethics approval procedures are also set up to deal with social care research. Consultations about the format of these are currently ongoing. Your supervisor will be able to give you guidance if this is likely to apply to your research project.
One final concern
As we have seen, research ethics so far has focussed on protecting the health and well being of your research participants. However, researchers must also consider their own safety when undertaking research to ensure that they do not take unnecessary risks. It is useful to take some time to think through the potential risks (however unlikely) that you may be taking when carrying out your research. You can then think through procedures for (a) minimising that risk, and (b) ensuring that you have clear procedures in place to be put into action in case of any emergency.
Potential risks include the following:
- Actual or threatened violence, psychological harm, unwanted sexual advances, etc.
- Injury travelling to/from the research venue.
- Allegations that researcher acted violently/inappropriately (e.g. made sexual advances towards participant; threatened participant, etc).
- Being implicated in illegal activities.
N.B. If you arrive at a research venue (e.g. a person's home) and you feel unsafe, or if your safety or well being is threatened/undermined at any point during the research, you should feel free to discontinue the research on that occasion.
Personal security
- Do not give personal details (e.g. home address or phone number) to participants.
- Think carefully about methods for recruiting participants (e.g. what is the potential for the participant to turn out to be someone other than who they claim to be? (This can be a real issue with Web-based research.)
- Where possible, schedule research activities during the day or early evening.
- Where possible, carry out research in venues where other people are around (e.g. on-campus; at the person's workplace; volunteer organisation's centre, etc.).
- Ensure that you can get safely to and from the venue (e.g. make sure car is safe to drive; not walking alone; how frequent are buses/trams/trains?).
- Put details of where you are going into a sealed envelope (to maintain participant confidentiality), and on the outside of the envelope put (1) expected time of arrival, (2) time you expect to finish, and (3) time you expect to be home. Give this to someone you can trust and are able to contact easily. Call this person before entering this venue; call again when leaving venue; and if not returning to the same household as that person, call to let them know you have arrived home safely. Make sure your contact person is aware that you will be contacting them, and knows what to do if you do not get in touch at these times. (E.g. I leave my mobile phone switched on during the research, and instruct my contact person to call me at the specified times, if I have not called first.) Ensure that you collect the envelope from them as soon as practicable afterwards. The envelope should only be opened by your contact person in the event of an emergency.
- It is advisable to have a fully charged mobile phone with you. If you do not have one, consider borrowing one. If for any reason this is not possible, consider taking someone with you (although they need not sit in on interviews).
An example of a researcher Risk Assessment proforma is included at the end of this section.
(All of the following documents are available in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format.)
Research Ethics Proposal Word | Acrobat
Participant Information Sheet Word | Acrobat
Sample Consent Form Word | Acrobat
Risk Assessment Proforma Word | Acrobat
Summary
- Morals are unwritten values used to distinguish the right from the wrong.
- Ethics are usually a written set of values which apply to a specific context.
- Codes of behaviour are used to protect the interests of research participants, since these interests are different and may even be at odds with those of the researcher.
- As a researcher, you must comply with the legal requirements binding your actions and the privacy of the research participants.
- The rights of research participants are listed in this section.
- Guidelines for your research proposal are provided in this section.
- Suggestions for good practice are provided in this section.
- Examples/templates of a Research Ethics Proposal, a Participant Information Sheet, a Consent Form, and a Risk Assessment Pro Forma are included in this section for your guidance.
Key Questions
- When I am conducting research, who is protecting my interests?
- When I am conducting research, who is protecting the interests and rights of my subjects?
- How can I make sure that my active research is a safe process?
- Have I got a thorough check list of tasks I need to do, with timelines attached?
- Have I kept my supervisor involved with discussions on research ethics?
Further reading
FRANCIS, R.D. (1999). A Code of Ethics for Psychologists. Leicester, BPS Books.
LEE-TREWICK, G. and LINKOGLE, S. (2000). Danger in the Field: Risk and ethics in social research. London, Routledge
MAUNTHNER, M. and BIRCH, M. (2002). Ethics in Qualitative Research. London, Sage
WALLIMAN, N. (2005). Your Research Project. 2nd ed. London, Sage, chapter 8 – honesty and research ethics
Web resources
Department of Health Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4008777
British Psychological Society Ethics Code:
http://www.bps.org.uk/the-society/ethics-rules-charter-code-of-conduct/
British Sociological Association Ethics Code:
http://www.sociology.org.uk/as4bsoce.pdf
American Anthropological Association Ethics Code:
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm
British Association of Social Work Ethics Code:
http://www.basw.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=67
Footnote
© 1. Professor Ann McAskill (Sheffield Hallam University)
