Читать книгу 100 Questions (and Answers) About Research Ethics - Emily E. Anderson - Страница 20

This book provides tips for addressing specific ethical issues that may arise in social and behavioral sciences research, but how do you know which issues are relevant to your research? For all your studies, you must first and foremost demonstrate respect for participants. This may be accomplished by obtaining informed consent for participation, although consent may take a variety of forms, and in some cases, may not be required. More on this in Part 5. You must also ensure that your research has the potential to do more good than harm. Research poses a variety of risks. More on this in Part 2. You must ensure that you are fair in your selection of research participants. This is covered in Part 6. Where to begin!? Consider your topic area, target population, methods, and data sources. Here are some questions to help you get started.

What is the focus of your research, and what kinds of information do you want to collect? Will you be asking about or be in a position to observe illegal or socially stigmatized behavior? Will you learn information about people that they might not want shared with others? Even if you’re not asking people about illegal or stigmatized behaviors, you might be asking them to tell you information that they consider personal and private. What people perceive as personal and private varies greatly, so avoid making assumptions about participants’ needs. In any study, regardless of the topic, researchers must follow best practices to protect participants’ privacy and the confidentiality of their data. More on this in Part 3.

Who is your target population? Might some or all of the individuals you want to recruit have difficulty understanding what the research is about and their rights as participants (including the right to say “no”) because of either cognitive deficits, limited English proficiency, or young age? Might some have a difficult time saying “no” to participating because you are in a relationship with unequal power? More on ethical considerations and best practices for research with a variety of vulnerable populations in Part 4.

How will you find your participants? What research method (or methods) do you plan to use? Self-administered online surveys, face-to-face or telephone interviews, focus groups, or observations? Each poses unique ethical challenges. For example, focus groups limit your ability to maintain participants’ privacy and the confidentiality of their data. Using deception in research may help you to collect more reliable information from participants, but you must consider ethical trade-offs. More on ethical issues to think about when designing your research in Part 6 and implementing your research in Part 10.

What will be your primary sources of data? Surveys? Observations? Data that exist in cyberspace? More on unique ethical challenges posed by different types of data sources in Parts 7 and 9.

Lastly, as you begin thinking about conducting a research study, you must find out the requirements and process for ethical review at your institution. More on the institutional review board submission process in Part 8.

More questions? See #11, #18, and #34.