research staff. There are regional, national, and disciplinary differences in terms of just how far limits are imposed on any individual researcher or team; in theory (in the design and consultation phase) and in practice (during the research and its eventual dissemination). There are also ongoing debates in certain quarters about the longer-term implications the formalities can have on independent thinking, or innovative research project plans anyway. What are complex cultural and moral questions that differ from project toproject, place to place, and periods of time, can become inflexible rules and procedures wielded by powerful committees, as is the case in the US in particular.
Who calls the shots? Nonetheless, recent years have seen universities, international academic organizations, and national research bodies developing and refining their respective ‘codes of research ethics’ to comply with legal obligations but also to keep up to pace with changes in the context and challenges of research today. Anthropology, sociology, and psychology are particularly active in this area, as are medical researchers and those fields where experimental work is carried out. Apart from moral and philosophical inquiries into the origins of ethics, there is a more practical point. As the Social Research Association puts it,
Poor design or trivial and foolish studies can waste people’s time and can contaminate the field for future research. Thus research design itself raises many ethical considerations.
(Social Research Association 2003: 25)
When considering doing research with human subjects, and their avatars (see Chapter 5), all researchers, students included, need to consider whether their inquiry will have an impact, namely a detrimental one, on their interlocutors. The converse is also the case, ensuring that a research project has taken account of any physical or emotional risks; when researching criminal organizations or in post-conflict zones, a research project should not put a researcher in any unreasonable or excessive danger. There is also the whole legal matter of litigation, liability, and responsibility by which institutions, hospitals and research centres look to cover their backs at worst, and ensure their staff and students conduct themselves appropriately at best.
The assumption underwriting unwritten and formalized codes of research practice is that researchers are social actors working with other people directly or in situations where others may be, or see themselves affected by what researchers are doing. Theoretical pursuits such as astrophysics, mathematics, and philosophy do not fall under this rubric on the whole. In addition, as a scholarly and legal pursuit on its own terms, ethics is an area of specialist knowledge. And with the influence and penetration of the internet into everyday research and methodological innovations emerging from there, codes of ethics are being overhauled accordingly; in other words, ‘new methods pose new ethical problems’ (Social Reasearch Association 2003: 5); more on these matters in Chapter 5 .
When should I start being concerned with ethical issues? The main thing to bear in mind is that ethical practicalities, and dilemmas, can arise at three moments: when designing, when carrying out, and when writing up or going public with the results of the project. The good thing about the increasing clarity and referenced guidelines readily available these days, including mandatory forms and permissions for advanced research projects (postgraduate and onwards though not excluding any bachelor level), is that they provide a wealth of information and resources. The downside is that these details can threaten to overwhelm those starting out or confront those who have left these things until the very last minute with some frightening limits to what they can say and eventually claim.
What sorts of projects in particular see researchers having to devote time and consideration to
Who calls the shots? Nonetheless, recent years have seen universities, international academic organizations, and national research bodies developing and refining their respective ‘codes of research ethics’ to comply with legal obligations but also to keep up to pace with changes in the context and challenges of research today. Anthropology, sociology, and psychology are particularly active in this area, as are medical researchers and those fields where experimental work is carried out. Apart from moral and philosophical inquiries into the origins of ethics, there is a more practical point. As the Social Research Association puts it,
Poor design or trivial and foolish studies can waste people’s time and can contaminate the field for future research. Thus research design itself raises many ethical considerations.
(Social Research Association 2003: 25)
When considering doing research with human subjects, and their avatars (see Chapter 5), all researchers, students included, need to consider whether their inquiry will have an impact, namely a detrimental one, on their interlocutors. The converse is also the case, ensuring that a research project has taken account of any physical or emotional risks; when researching criminal organizations or in post-conflict zones, a research project should not put a researcher in any unreasonable or excessive danger. There is also the whole legal matter of litigation, liability, and responsibility by which institutions, hospitals and research centres look to cover their backs at worst, and ensure their staff and students conduct themselves appropriately at best.
The assumption underwriting unwritten and formalized codes of research practice is that researchers are social actors working with other people directly or in situations where others may be, or see themselves affected by what researchers are doing. Theoretical pursuits such as astrophysics, mathematics, and philosophy do not fall under this rubric on the whole. In addition, as a scholarly and legal pursuit on its own terms, ethics is an area of specialist knowledge. And with the influence and penetration of the internet into everyday research and methodological innovations emerging from there, codes of ethics are being overhauled accordingly; in other words, ‘new methods pose new ethical problems’ (Social Reasearch Association 2003: 5); more on these matters in Chapter 5 .
When should I start being concerned with ethical issues? The main thing to bear in mind is that ethical practicalities, and dilemmas, can arise at three moments: when designing, when carrying out, and when writing up or going public with the results of the project. The good thing about the increasing clarity and referenced guidelines readily available these days, including mandatory forms and permissions for advanced research projects (postgraduate and onwards though not excluding any bachelor level), is that they provide a wealth of information and resources. The downside is that these details can threaten to overwhelm those starting out or confront those who have left these things until the very last minute with some frightening limits to what they can say and eventually claim.
What sorts of projects in particular see researchers having to devote time and consideration to
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