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“Ethics” refers to the study of what ought to (or ought not to) be done. The term also describes a collective body of guidance regarding questions of good or right action. Ethical decision making is the process of identifying, evaluating, and choosing among options regarding a problem that has an ethical dimension. What kinds of problems have ethical dimensions? Those that involve and may impact humans.

Research, or the scientific study of human beings and their behavior, began centuries before there were any formal rules or codes of research ethics written down on paper. However, since ancient times, scholars in philosophy and religion have articulated guiding principles regarding how humans should treat each other. Arguably, there is a fair amount of agreement regarding such treatment, perhaps best evidenced by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Rooted in the Judeo-Christian traditions, this “common morality” is the foundation for codes of ethics for research developed by professional societies like the American Psychological Association as well as the federal research regulations. Research ethics codes and regulations interpret and apply the common morality for the research context by following three key principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. More on these principles throughout the rest of the book.

Research ethics is a form of applied ethics: that is, the study of and rules for what ought to be done in the specific context of research. During the past 50 years, research ethics has developed as a specialized area of study to determine the best courses of action for scientists who conduct research, and in particular, research with humans. Such scholarly analysis has become essential as research with human participants becomes more specialized, complex, and multi- and interdisciplinary. The study of research ethics is devoted to identifying the standards to which researchers should be held, including the parameters that should guide researcher behavior and the practices and processes that best protect human research participants within specific contexts. Such parameters, practices, and processes are articulated in federal research regulations; professional codes of ethics; institutional policies; and various other forms of guidance such as white papers, government reports, reports from nongovernmental organizations, and research ethics scholarship. This book aims to explain in 100 questions and answers the general ethical rules for social and behavioral research with human participants.

More questions? See #2, #5, and #10.