Research ethics involves applying moral principles to guide research involving human subjects in a responsible way. There are four main ethical principles: avoiding harm to participants, obtaining informed consent, respecting privacy, and avoiding deception. Obtaining informed consent involves providing information on the research purpose and procedures, ensuring participation is voluntary, and maintaining privacy of data. Research should not cause harm such as distress and must have benefits such as contributing to knowledge. Upholding ethical standards is important for protecting subjects and conducting sound research.

1. Research Ethics

2. Objectives
After this session you will be able to:
• Define what we mean by ethics
• Explain why ethics are now so important to organizations
and individuals undertaking research
• Describe why adopting an ethical approach to research
is important
• Describe how ethical principles are of benefit to sound
research design
• Apply an ethical framework to your own research design
and practice

3. What do we mean by ‘ethics’
• The moral principles guiding research (ESRC, 2004)
• Sets of moral principles or norms that are used to guide
moral choices of behaviour and relationships with others
(Blumberg, et al, 2005)

4. Summary of ethical stances
Universalistic Contingent/relativistic
Deontological/non-
consequentialist
Ethical principles should
never be broken.
Breaking these
principles is both
morally wrong and
damaging to social
research
Duties are bound to particular
countries, communities,
professional groups and
clients
Teleological/consequentialist Means do not overlap with
ends, but following a
universal sets of rule or
practices can often be
relied on to pursue
those ends, e.g., rule
utilitarianism,
Acts should be judged purely
on their possible outcomes
– the ends justify the
means.

5. Summary of Nuremberg Code (1)
• Voluntary consent of the human subject is essential
• Experiment should yield fruitful results for the good of
society, unprocurable by other methods or means of
study, and not random and unnecessary in nature
• Experiment should be so designed on a knowledge of
the problem under study that the anticipated results will
justify the performance of the experiment.
• Experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all
unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury
• No experiment should be conducted where there is an a
priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will
occur

6. Summary of Nuremberg Code (2)
• The degree of risk should never exceed the humanitarian
importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment
• Adequate facilities should be provided to protect the
experimental subject against even remote possibilities of
injury, disability, or death
• The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically
qualified persons
• The human subject should be at liberty to bring the
experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental
state where continuation seems to him to be impossible
• The researcher must be prepared to terminate the experiment
at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, that a
continuation is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to
the experimental subject

7. Typical research involving ethical risk
• Vulnerable groups – such as children and young people,
those with learning disabilities or special needs
• Sensitive topics – for example, sexual or illegal activities,
or people’s experience of abuse or violence
• Subjects can only be accessed via a gatekeeper – for
example, some ethnic or cultural groups
• Element of deception such as covert observation used
without a participant’s full or informed consent
• Access to confidential records or information
• Activities leading to stress, anxiety or humiliation
amongst target groups

8. Ethical principles
Ethical principles, then, fall into four main areas, namely,
the need to:
• Avoid harm to participants (and producing benefits)
• Ensure informed consent of participants
• Respect the privacy of participants
• Avoid the use of deception

9. Avoiding harm to participants
Research will be considered harmful if it causes a
participant to be
• Embarrassed
• Ridiculed
• Belittled or generally subject to mental distress
• Anxious
• Stressed
• Subject to negative emotional reactions

10. Beyond avoiding harm….
Research should produce positive benefits such as:
• Adding to human knowledge
• Yielding accurate and valid results
• Providing feedback to respondents (if possible) to
promote greater self-understanding (if desired)

11. Informed consent (1)
Researcher should provide information on:
• The aims of the research
• Who will be undertaking it
• Who is being asked to participate
• What kind of information is being sought
• How much of the participant’s time is required

12. Informed consent (2)
• That participation in the study is voluntary
• That responding to all questions is voluntary
• Who will have access to the data once it is collected
• How anonymity of respondents will be preserved
• Who should it be returned to and by when

13. Respecting privacy
• Respondents must give informed consent
• Respondents have the right to withdraw at any time
• Data (in electronic and manual forms) must be kept
securely

14. Avoiding deception
Best achieved by being open and transparent about the
research including:
• Its objectives
• Methods
• Uses
• Role of respondent, including time and any other
commitments

15. Checklist of ethical issues
• Insert Table 4.7

16. Summary
• Research ethics refers to the moral principles guiding
research, conducting research in a responsible and
morally defensible way
• Any research involving the study of human populations
can involve ethical considerations but particularly
research that deals with vulnerable groups, and/or
involves sensitive topics that could cause distress or
anxiety or involves any element of deception
• Central to the principles of research are that it should:
avoid harm to participants, ensure informed consent,
respect the privacy of participants and avoid deception