Main Ethical Points for Students to Consider in Social Research

Although Research Ethics Principles are arguably one of the corner-stones of most primary research; many of the undergraduate and even master’s students, who I supervised for their dissertation primary research, seemed to (i) not have prior understanding of the different ethical aspects in research, and (ii) fail to realise the importance of meeting the ethical standards in their research. This made some of these students see the Ethical Approval procedure, which their university required them to complete, as no more than an administrative/paperwork activity.

My job as a supervisor was always to highlight to the students the importance of the Ethical Approval procedure, as well as, explain to them the potential negative consequences if the ethical standards are not properly met during the collection, handling, and analysis of their research’s primary data.

The potential negative consequences from a poor ethical conduct in research are, in my opinion, likely to be the main drivers for establishing rigorous Ethical Approval procedures at educational and research insinuations. This is because those insinuations do not like bad publicity, or being fined or taken to the court ^{1 2}.

Not surprisingly, the potential negative consequences are not only limited to research participants (e.g. negative physical, mental, and/or psychological harm ¹); but it can also affect the researchers themselves (e.g. losing their academic positions/privileges; or being subject to physical, mental, and/or psychological abuse), their supervisors and line managers (e.g. negatively affect their reputation and ability to general future funds for their research), and even their university (e.g. losing funding opportunities and/or getting their insurance profile negatively affected ³) and scientific community in general (e.g. scepticism/criticism from the general public towards the scientific community).

To help my students obtain ethical approval, and most importantly, meet the ethical standards in their research; I put together a number of advice/action points that they can follow/do. I compiled these points from my general knowledge and experience in research; however, for a more detailed take on any of the points, please check academic books on Social Science Research.

I divided the points into two parts; the first one is about the documents that students need to present to their potential research participants; while the second part contains general ethics-related points for students to consider during the collection, handling, and analysis of their data.

Participant Information Sheet & Consent Form

• For the majority of primary research in Social Science, researchers are advised to use two documents during the data collection phase: Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form. In psychology, researchers also use “debriefing forms” which will not be covered in this article, as the focus here is only on the general cases of social science research.
• The Participant Information Sheet is basically a document that is designed to help researchers introduce the ideas and process of their research to the individuals who are considered as potential research participants, and convince those individuals to take part in the research. As a researcher in a primary study, you properly need to use a Participant Information Sheet that includes the following:
  • An explanation of your research and its purpose.
  • Your affiliation/university.
  • The funder of your research. If you are self-funding your research (e.g. MSc dissertation project), then you do not need to mention this.
  • An explanation of why the participant’s contribution to your research would be very valuable.
  • The role of the participant in your research (e.g. would the participant be interviewed?).
  • The rights of the participant in your research (e.g. the right to withdraw from the research at any point of time).
  • The measures that you put in place to keep the participant’s data secured and confidential/anonymous (confidentiality and anonymity are two different things; please make sure to understand the difference before conducting your research).
  • The period in which you would retain the participant’s data before you eventually destroy them.
  • Explain how the participant can contact you as a researcher and/or contact your supervisor/line manager for any issues/questions related to the research that you are involving in.
• You should provide a copy of the Participant Information Sheet to the potential research participants, and you should also explain the sheet to them verbally. The reason for this is because you want people to make an informed decision about whether or not they would like to participate in the research.
• Your participants should give an informed consent, and they need to sign a detailed Consent Form before they would be able to participate in the research. Think about the Consent Form as a legal document which covers your back as a research if anything goes wrong in the research.
• For more information about the Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form; you can ask your supervisor, line manager, and/or university for samples of those documents.

Ethical Considerations during Data Collection and Analysis

Here are some of the points that you may consider during the collection, handling, and analysis of your research’s primary data:

• Make sure that your privacy measures meet the needs and expectations of your research participants. For example, conduct your interviews in locations where people outside would not see or hear your interactions with your participants.
• If you want to discuss some private/personal issues with your participant, you need to as the participant beforehand if s/he is happy to discuss/share such issues/information.
• Do not discuss your data or your participants in public (e.g. in a diner meeting with your friends), especially if the participants are known to those who you are discussing your research with.
• Do not store your data on cloud or in devices connected to the internet, unless you encrypt them before transferring them to these spaces.
• Store all the hard copies of your data in a locked place/drawer.
• Put in place rigorous measures to ensure confidentiality/anonymity of the identity of the people and organisations involved in your research. For example, if your data is confidential (you collect data about the participants’ personal and contact details for research purposes, but only the members of the research team can access them), then you should store the (i) participants’ responses and (ii) participants’ personal information and contact details in separate places. The reason for this is because you do not want anyone outside the research team to be able to link the responses to the identity of your participants. In this case, the research team should use an identifier code to securely link the responses and personal information for research purposes only; anyone outside the research team should not be able to do so.
• Make sure to have a permission letter form the company from which you are going to collect data (e.g. interview the employees working at that company).
• If you are going to conduct your fieldwork study in a privately owned/managed place (e.g. distribute a questionnaire to people while they are shopping at a supermarket), then you need to get permission from the owner/manager of that place.
• Decide whether or not people would participate voluntary in your research. If your participants would receive financial incentive from you, then you need to make sure that this would not affect the data that you are going to collect from them.
• Think about how you would maintain transparency during the ‘data collection’ and ‘data analysis’ phases of your research (e.g. explain how you would select the items of your sample).
• Make sure that your research would not misinterpret the participants’ responses.
• When presenting the findings of your research, explain how you would make sure to provide a full and impartial picture of your data.
• Think about whether the findings of your research would negatively affect your participants or their communities.
• Make sure that the wellbeing of your participants would not be negatively affected (e.g. psychological harm) by your research.
• Explore how your research would benefit the people and/or organisations involved (e.g. raising awareness about social issues, campaigning to improve the working condition in some sectors/industries … etc.).

References

1. Gray, J. (2017). ‘Northumbria University Students Given Equivalent Of 300 Cups Of Coffee In ‘Life-Threatening’ Caffeine Study’, HuffPost Education, U.K. edition, 26 Jan. [online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/northumbria-uni-students-300-cups-coffee-caffeine-study_uk_5889bb46e4b0de43f92cc1fb [Accessed: 30 August 2022].

2. Stempel, J. (2019). ‘Duke University pays $112.5 million in fake research case sparked by whistleblower’, Reuters, U.S., 25 March. [online] Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-carolina-duke-settlement-idUSKCN1R61YS [Accessed: 30 August 2022].

3. ucl.ac.uk. (2016). The Main Reasons why Ethical Approval is Required. [online] Available at: https://ethics.grad.ucl.ac.uk/why-is-ethical-approval-required.php [Accessed 30 August 2022].