Research ethics Flashcards
What is research ethics?
Make sure that researchers follow responsible practices and participants are treated with respect and care.
For researchers its a set of ethical guidelines that guides how to conduct scientific research, especially when participants are involved as that is when ethical issues arise
Who review wether research is ethical or not, and what do they protect?
Research ethics committee/Institutional Review Board (IRB) and they protect the rights, dignity and welfare of participants
What are the three objectives of research ethics?
- Protect participants dignity, rights and welfare
- Benefit society as research should be directed in a manner that assists welfare of persons, groups and/or society
- Ensure ethical practices by reviewing research plans and events to ensure they are ethical by minimizing risk, protecting private info and ensuring informed consent among participants
What are the 15 ethics principles?
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Autonomy
- Confidentiality
- Informed consent
- Respect for person/respondent
- Benefiance (välvilja)
- Non-maleficence
- Protecting anonymity
- Non-discrimination
- Openness
- Carefulness and respect for IP
- Justice
- Responsible publication
Honesty-principle
Being honest with beneficiaries, participants and other stakeholders, and about findings and the methodology of the research
Integrity-principle
Ensuring honesty and sincerity, fulfilling agreements and promises and not creating fale expectations or making false promises
Objectivity-principle
Avoiding bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review and other aspects of research
Autonomy-principle
Individuals right to self-determination and make decisions without interference from others
Confidentiality-principle
Protecting confidential info and personnel records
Informed consent-principle
Participants knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently gives consent to participate
- Related to individuals autonomous rights
- Informing participants about research objectives, their role, benefits/harm etc
Respect for person-principle
Includes autonomy and requires that participants self-determination is recognized and those without/with reduced autonomy is protected
Benefiance-principle
Ethical obligation to maximize benefits and minimize possible harm to participants
Non-maleficence/protecting the subjects
Do no harm, minimize risk/harm, ensure privacy, autonomy and dignity
Protecting anonymity-principle
Avoid revealing personal information that could identify participants
Non-discrimination-principle
Treat all participants equally regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity or other factors that are violation of human rights and are not related to the study
Openness-principle
Be open to sharing results, data and other resources, and accept encouraging comments and constructive feedback
Carefulness and respect for IP
Be careful about possible errors and biases, give credit to the IP of others, always paraphrase, never plagiarize, cite sources
Justice-principle
Distribute benefits and burdens fairly among participants
Responsible publication-principle
Publish responsibly to promote research or knowledge, don’t duplicate
What are good practices in research ethics?
- Minimizing the risk of harm
- Obtaining informed consent
- Protecting anonymity and confidentiality
- Avoiding misleading practices
- Protection of vulnerable groups of people
- Skills of the researcher
Minimizing the risk of harm
Researcher/data collector should
- Obtain informed consent
Protect anonymity and confidentiality
- Avoid misleading practices when planning research
- Provide participants with the right to withdraw
Examples of harm
- Bodily harm
- Psychological harm and embarrassment
- Social drawback
. Violation of confidentiality and privacy
Obtaining informed consent
Participants should be well-informed about
- Introduction and objective of research
- Purpose of discussion
- Anticipated advantages, benefits/harm
- Use of research
- Their role in the research
- Methods used to protect anonymity and confidentiality
- Freedom to not answer questions
- Who to contact if additional info is wanted
Protecting anonymity and confidentiality
- Keeping participants anonymous by not revealing any info that may reveal their identity
- Maintaining confidentiality by ensuring that info given by participants is confidential and not shared with anyone expect research team
Avoiding misleading practices
- Researcher should not be deceptive or mislead/misinform the participants
- Participants have the right to withdraw at any point
Protection of vulnerable groups of people
People incapable of protecting their moralities and well-being are vulnerable and should be protected
- Vulnerable groups include mentally ill, aged people, critically ill or dying, poor, learning incapacities, students, detainees, etc
Skills of the researcher
Include basic skills and familiarity for the specific study to be carried out, be conscious with lack of personal competence
- Any lack of knowledge must be clearly specified
- Inexperienced researchers should work under qualified supervision that has to be revised by an ethics commitee
What are engineering ethics?
Engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity, and engineering ethics are thus a set of rules and standards governing conduct of engineers.
