Ethics

Stakeholders in research

Ethical issues concerning research perticipants

 Collecting information
 Seeking consent
 Providing incentives
 Seeking sensitive informationthe possibility of causing harm to participants
 Mantaining confidentiality

Ethical issues relating to the research

 Avoiding bias
 Provision or deprivation of a treatment
 Using appropriate research methodology
 Correct reporting
 Using information

Ethical issues regarding the sponsoring organisation

 The use of information

Summary

Ethics

All professions are guided by a code of ethics that has evolved over the years to accommodate
the changing ethos, values, needs and expectations of those who hold a stake in the professions.
Some professions are more advanced than others in terms of the level of development of their code
of ethics. Some have very strict guidelines, monitor conduct effectively and take appropriate steps
againts those who do not abide by the guidelines.

Most professions have an overall code of conduct that also governsthe way they carry out
research. In addition, many research bodies have evolved a code of ethicsseparetely for research.
Medicine, epidemiology, business, law, education, psycholohtang other social sciences have well-
established code or ethics for research.

Let us first examine what we mean by ‘ethisc’ or ‘ethical behaviour’. According to the collins
Dictionary (1979:502), ethical means ‘in those of a given profession or group’. In key words here,
‘principles of conduct’ and consodered correct’, raise certain questions:

 What are these principles of conduct?

 Who determaines them?
 In whose judgement must they be considered correct?

Closely related question are:

  Are there universal principles of conduct that can be applied to all professions?
 Do these change with time?
 Should they?
 What happens when a professional does not abide by them?

The subject of ethics needs to be considered in the lights of these questions.

The way each profession serves society is continuously changing in accordance with society’s
needs and expectations and with the technologyavailable for the delivery of a service. The ethical
codes governing the manner in which a service is delivered also need to change. What has been
considered ethical in the past may not be so judged at present, and what is ethical now may not
remain so in the future. Any judgement about whether a particular practice is ethical is made on the
basis of code of conduct prevalent at that point in time.

As the servece and its manner of deliveru differfrom professions to professions, no code of
conduct can be uniformly applied across all professions. Each professions has its own code of ethics,
though there arecommonalities. If you want guidelines on ethical conduct for a
particularprofessions, you need to consult the code of ethics adopted by that professions or
discipline.

The question “What are these principles of conduct?”, in the most important one as it
addresses yhe issue of the contents of ethical behaviour in a profession. As the code of conduct
varies from profession of profession, it is not possible to provide a universal answer to this question.
However, in research, any dilemma stemmed from a moral quandary is a basis of ethical conduct.
There are certain behaviours in research-such as causing harm to individuals, breaching
confidentialy, using information improperly, and introducing bias-that are considered unethical in
any profession.

The next question is: in whose judgement must a code of conduct be considered correct?
Who decides whether a particular practice is wrong? If a procedure is carried out wrongly, what
penalties shoud be imposed? It is the overall body of professionls or goverment organisations that
collectively develope a professional code of conduct and forms a judgement as to whether or not it
is being followed.

As mentioned, most profesions have established an overall code of ethics and also a code of
ethics for conducting research in their respective fields. As this book is desogned for researchers in
the social sciences, we will examine ethical issues in general and issues that are applicable to most
social science disciplines.

Stakeholdres in research

There are many stakeholders in a research activity, so it is important to look at ethical issues
in relation to each one of them. The various stakeholders are:

1. The participants or subject;

2. The researcher; and
3. The funding body.
 Participants or subjects to be considered as stakeholdres depend on the profession. In the
fields or medicine, public health, epidemiology and nursing, these are patients and non-patients who
become part of a study, information collection exercise, experiment or drug trial, and service
managers and planners who contribute information for a research study.

In the social sciences, the participants or subjects include individuals, group and
communities providing information to help a researcher to gainunderstanding of a phenomenon,
situation, issues or interaction. In social work and psychology, participants include clients as well as
non-clients of an agency frm whom information is collected to find otu the magnitude of a problem,
the needs of a community or the effectiveness of a intervention; and service providers, social
workers and psychologists, when they provide information for a study. In bussiness, consumers as
well non-consumers of product provide information about consumption patterns and behaviour.
Managers participate in research activity examining different facets of managemnt. In education,
subject include students, teachers and perhaps the community at large who participate in
educational research activities.

Similary, in any discipline in which a research activity is undertaken, those from whom
information is collected and/or those who are studied by a researcher become participants in the
and/aor subjects of, the study.

The researcheris ib the seconds category of stakeholders. Anyone who collects information
for a specific purpose, adhering to the accepted code of conduct, is a researcher and may represent
any academic discipline.

The body finding a research activity falls into the third categoryi of stakeholders. Most
research in carried out using funds provided by bussiness organisations, service institutions-
goverment, semi-govermnet ot voluntary-reserach bodies, and/or academic institutions. The funds
are given for spesific purpose. The funding body may have a vested interest in the research it is
sponsoring, and this could affect the way research is conducted or the way the report is written.

Each category of stakeholders in a research activity may have different interests,

prespectives, purposes, aims, and motivations that could affect the way that research activity is
carried out and the way result are communicated and used. Bevause of this, it is important to ensure
that research is not affected by the self-interest of any partyand is not carried out in a waythat
harms any party. Accordingly, ethical conduct in research concerning issuesrelating to different
stakeholders should be examined under separate categories.

Ethical issues concerning research participants

Collecting Information

One could ask, why should a respondent give any information to a researcher? What right does a
researcher have to knock at someone’s door or to send out a requestionare? Is it ethical to disturb
an individual, even if ask permission before asking questions? Why should a person give you his/her
time? Your request for information may create anxiety or put pressure on the respondent. Is this
ethical?
But the above question display a naive attitude. The author believes that if this attitude had been
adopted, there would have been no progress in the world. Research is required in order to improve
conditions. Provided any piece of research is likely to help society directly or indirectly, it is
acceptable to ask question, if you first obtain the respondents’ inforned consent. Before you begin
collecting information, you must consider the relevance and usefulness of the research you are
undertalking and be able to convince others of this also. If you cannot justify the relevance of the
research you are conducting, you are wasting your respondents’ time, which is unethical.

Seeking Consent

In every discipline it is considered unethical to collect information wihtout the knowledge of

participants, their informed willingness, and expressed consent. Seeking information consent ‘is
probably the most common method in medical and social research.’ (Bailey 1978: 384)/ informed
consent implies that subject are made adequately aware of the type of information you want from
them, why the information is being sought, what purpose it will be put to, how they are expected to
participate in the study, and of how it will directly or indirectly affect them. It is important that the
consent sould also be voluntary and wihtout pressure of any kind. Schinke and Gilchrist write:

Under standards set by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects, all
informed-consent procedures must meet three criteria: participants must be competent to
give consent; sufficient information must be provided to allow for a reasoned decision; and
consent must be voluntary and uncoerced (1993:83)

Competency, according Schinke and Gilchrist, ‘is concerned with the legal and mental capacitics of
participants to give permission’ (1993:83). For example, some very old people, those suffering from
conditions that excludethem from making informed decisions, people in crisis, people who cannot
speak the language in which researce is being carried out, people who are dependent upon you for a
service, and children, are not considered to be competent.