Research Ethics

Mtodos de
Investigacin
en Lingstica
Inglesa
Prof. Dra. Jelena
Bobkina
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Unit 2: Research Ethics
Outline
Introduction
Honesty in your work
Situations that raise ethical issues
Carrying out the research
INTRODUCTION
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
research value
HONESTY
Avoid taking shortcuts and cheating

your research will be discredited and you will suffer penalties and humiliation
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
How?
Following clear guidelines (in citation)

WHY?
1. So as not to be accused of plagiarism
2. Its a virtue you have read widely and you are
knowledgeable
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
HONESTY, a matter of ETHICS:
N.B.: Singularly important when working with human
participants
KEY WORD respect (before, during, after)
Strict ethical guidelines must be followed
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
Important, even when not using human
participants
collection, analysis and interpretation of data
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
By explaining exactly how you arrived at your
conclusions you can avoid accusations of
cover-ups or false reasoning.
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
Two aspects of ethical issues in research:
1. The individual values of the researcher relating to honesty and
frankness and personal integrity.
2. The researchers treatment of other people involved in the
research, relating to informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity
and courtesy.
N.B. Ethical principles easy; yet, not always straightforward because
research involves human relationships.
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
ORGANIZATIONS AND ETHICS COMMITTEES:
Organizations involved in research involving

human participants have set up a code of
practice for their researches.
Examples:
<http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/Ethical%20Guidelines>
<http://www.britsoc.co.uk/about/equality/statement-of-ethical-practice.aspx>
Introduction
TASK:
Bera, Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research
Answer the following quiz on ethics code of conduct and reflect

on the variety of fundamental aspects that are brought up.
(Walliman 2011)
Introduction
The role of ethics committees is to oversee the
research carried out in their organizations in
relation to ethical issues. It is they who formulate
the research ethics code of conduct and monitor
its application in the research carried out by
members of their organizations. Applying for
ethics approval inevitably involves filling in forms.
HONESTY IN YOUR WORK
(Walliman 2011)

HONESTY:
Engender a level of trust and credibility in the outcomes of the research
Applicable to all researches
(Walliman 2011)

HONESTY:
Most important issues
- Intellectual ownership and plagiarism
- Acknowledgement and citation
- Data and interpretations
- Where do you stand?
What is plagiarism?

HONESTY: intellectual ownership and plagiarism
plagiarism
noun \pl-j-ri-zm also -j--\ : the act of using another person's words or
ideas without giving credit to that person : the act of plagiarizing something
1: an act or instance of plagiarizing
2: something plagiarized
plagiarist \-rist\ noun
plagiaristic \pl-j-ris-tik also -j--\ adjective
(Merriam Webster 2014)
plagiarism
1) Directly copying someone elses work into your report, thesis, etc. and lettting it
ibe assumed that it is your own
2) Using the thoughts, ideas and works of others without acknowledging their
source, even if you paraphrased into your own words.
3) Claiming sole authorship of work which is in fact the result of collaboration or
amanuensis.
(Walliman 2011)
(The University of Chicago 2014)

EXAMPLE:
The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct

quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in
the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final
manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source
materials while taking notes. Lester, James. Writing Research
Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote
excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable
level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is
essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).

EXAMPLE:

Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in
direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted
material
in
a
research
paper
(Lester
46-47).

EXAMPLE:

Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct
quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the
final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final
copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to
limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.
(Walliman 2011)

Unless otherwise stated, what you write will be
regarded as your own work; i.e. the ideas will be
considered your own unless you say the contrary.
SOLUTION CITATION
(Walliman 2011)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND CITATION
When doing research, you cannot rely entirely on your
own ideas, concepts and theories.
YOU NEED SOURCES CITATION
(Walliman 2011)

There are several well established citation methods.
- APA Style
- MLA Style
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Harvard referencing
- ASA Style
- ALWD Citation Manual
- Libro Blanco del Trabajo Fin de Grado
In general
All of them consist of brief annotations or numbers placed within the
text that identify the cited material, and a list of references at the
end of the text that give the full publication details of the source
material.
(Walliman 2011)

These methods of reference cater for different quotations or ideas,
etc. from the work of others gathered from a wide variety of sources
(such as books, journals, conferences, talks, interviews, TV
programmes, etc.), and should be meticulously used.
You should also indicate the assisstance of others and any
collaboration with others, usually in the form of a written
acknowledgement at the beginning or end of the report.
(Walliman 2011)

Quizz 2:
Apply the submission guidelines uploaded on the Moodle platform
to the paper Studying the Holocaust from a Gendered
Perspective.
(Walliman 2011)

RESPONSIBILTY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
OF THE RESEARCHER
CORRECT ATTRIBUTION + HONESTY ESSENTIAL
Responsibilities to fellow researchers,

repsondents, the public and the academic
community
Accurate descriptions are required of what you have done, how
you have done it, the information you obtained, the techniques
you used, the analysis you carried out, and the results of
experiments.
(Walliman 2011)

DATA AND INTERPRETATIONS
Although it is difficult, and some maintain that it is impossible, to
be free from bias, distorting your data or results knowingly is a
serious lapse of honesty.
- If you can see any reason for a possibility of bias in any
aspect of the research, it should be acknowledged and
explained.
-If the study involves personal judgements and assessments,
the basis for these should be given.
- Silently rejecting or ignoring evidence which happens to be
contrary to ones beliefs, or being too selective in the data
used and in presenting the results of the analysis constitutes
a breach of integrity.
(Walliman 2011)

The sources of financial support for the research activities should
be mentioned, and pressure and sponsorship from sources which
might influence the impartiality of the research outcomes should
be avoided.
(http://www.bmj.com/content/326/7400/1167)

Abstract: Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and
quality: systematic review
Objective To investigate whether funding of drug studies by the pharmaceutical industry
is associated with outcomes that are favourable to the funder and whether the methods
of trials funded by pharmaceutical companies differ from the methods in trials with other
sources of support.
Results 30 studies were included. Research funded by drug companies was less likely
to be published than research funded by other sources. Studies sponsored by
pharmaceutical companies were more likely to have outcomes favouring the sponsor
than were studies with other sponsors (odds ratio 4.05; 95% confidence interval 2.98 to
5.51; 18 comparisons). None of the 13 studies that analysed methods reported that
studies funded by industry was of poorer quality.
Conclusion Systematic bias favours products which are made by the company funding
the research. Explanations include the selection of an inappropriate comparator to the
product being investigated and publication bias.

STUDY CASES
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/

Case 1:
The research protocol for a study of a drug on hypertension
requires the administration of the drug at different doses to 50
laboratory mice, with chemical and behavioral tests to determine
toxic effects. Tom has almost finished the experiment for Dr. Q.
He has only 5 mice left to test. However, he really wants to finish
his work in time to go to Florida on spring break with his friends,
who are leaving tonight. He has injected the drug in all 50 mice
but has not completed all of the tests. He therefore decides to
extrapolate from the 45 completed results to produce the 5
additional results.
Acted unethically fabricated data (= he intended to deceive)

Case 2:
Dr. T has just discovered a mathematical error in a paper that has
been accepted for publication in a journal. The error does not
affect the overall results of his research, but it is potentially
misleading. The journal has just gone to press, so it is too late to
catch the error before it appears in print. In order to avoid
embarrassment, Dr. T decides to ignore the error.
Acted unethically violate norms of honesty and objectivity

Deviations from acceptable research practices include:
- Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling
the editors
- Submitting the same paper to different journals without telling the
editors
- Using an inappropriate statistical technique in order to enhance the
significance of your research
- Conducting a review of the literature that fails to acknowledge the
contributions of other people in the field or relevant prior work
- Stretching the truth on a job application or curriculum vita
- Not reporting an adverse event in a human research experiment
- Owning over $10,000 in stock in a company that sponsors your
research and not disclosing this financial interest
(Walliman 2011)

WHERE DO YOU STAND?
The theoretical perspective that underpin the research
should be made clear at the outset
BECAUSE
the theoretical approach will influence the type of data collection
and analysis used.
N.B. These methods are not ethically neutral so they will raise ethical issues.
SITUATIONS
THAT
ETHICAL ISSUES
RAISE
(Walliman 2011)
Situations that raise ethical

issues
Research which involves studying people and their relationships

to each other and to the world, need to be particularly sensitive
about issues of ethical behaviour.
WHY?
Sensibilities
Rights
Avoid harm.
How?
Carrying out or publishing the results of the project
(Walliman 2011)

issues
RESEARCH AIMS
In terms of ethics, which questions may you ask yourself

when setting the objectives of your research:
- Will the results of the research benefit society, or at least
not harm it?
- Will there be losers as well as gainers?
How can ethics be ensured?
- Stating clearly both aims and their consequences.
(Walliman 2011)

issues
USE OF LANGAUGE
In what way may the use of language be unethical?
- Patronizing
- Disparaging
- Bias
- Stereotyping
- Discrimination
- Prejudice
- Intolerance
- Discrimination
N.B. Acceptable terminology changes in time.

issues
USE OF LANGAUGE
Can you provide the politically correct equivalent for these
terms?
disabled/ handicapped
mentally disabled
blind/ going blind
deaf/ going deaf
short
bald/ balding
old people
uneducated
dead
ugly
physicall chanllenged
mentally challenged /learning difficulties
visually impaired
hearing impaired
short
folically challenged / comb free
seniors
lacking a formal education
living impaired
banned
(Walliman 2011)

issues
PRESENTATION
This relates to how you present yourself in the role of the

researcher which might influence the attitude and expectations of
the people you involve in your project.
Student-researchers should present themselves as just that, and
give the correct impression that they are doing the research as an
academic exercise which does not have the institutional or political
backing to cause immediate action. Practitioner researchers, such as
teachers, nurses or social workers, have a professional status that
lends more authority and possibly power to instigate change. Do not
raise false expectations.
Do not take advantage of the influential position of the research
situation!
(Walliman 2011)

issues
DEALING WITH PARTICIPANTS
-Due ethical consideration (when choosing participants, dealing

with them and using their information they provide).
-Must choose freely whether to take part in a survey or not.
-Avoid dishonest means of persuassion (e.g. posing as an official,
making unrealistic and untrue promises, being unduly persistent,
and targeting people in vulnerable situations).
(Walliman 2011)

issues
-Participation in the research must be dependent on the information

received about the research, which is why participants should
understand clearly and easily the project so as to assessed and
decide to give or not an informed consent.
CONSENT: It involves three elements
Capacity ability to acquire or retain knowledge and the
authority or legal qualification to perform an act.
Information ensuring subjects are told and that they
understand the purpose of the study and their roles as subjects
Voluntariness subjects choose to be in the study freely
Particular attention must be given to: children, the elderly or ill,
foreign language speakers and the illiterate.
(Walliman 2011)

issues
-When working with organizations, managers or other people with

overall responsibilities several layers of consent may be
needed
What issues are to be discussed, how the investigation will be
conducted, how confidentiality will be maintained
-Participants may have the right to terminate their participation at

any time.
CARRYING
RESEARCH
OUT
THE
(Walliman 2011)

POTENTIAL HARM AND GAIN
The principal behind ethical research is to cause no harm
and, if possible, to produce some gain for the participants in the
project and the wider field.
What does HARM involve?
Physical harm (obvious)
Psychological stress
Personal embarrassment
Humiliation
One guideline to follow:

Does the risk or harm to the subject outweigh the potential
good to society of the study? If it does, don't do the study!
(Walliman 2011)

POTENTIAL HARM AND GAIN
Researchers responsibility:
Assess the potential of the chosen research methods
and their outcomes for causing harm or gain. This
involves recognizing what the risks might be and
choosing methods that minimize these risks, and
avoiding making any revelations that could in any way be
harmful to the reputation, dignity or privacy of subjects.
One guideline to follow:
Does the risk or harm to the subject outweigh the potential good
to society of the study? If it does, don't do the study!
(Walliman 2011)

RECORDING DATA
There is a danger of simplifying transcripts when writing
up data from interviews and open questions. When you
clean up and organize the data, you can start to impose
your own interpretation, ignoring vocal inflections,
repetitions, aisdes, and subtitles of humour, thereby
loosing some of the meanings. Further distortion can be
introduced by being governed by ones own particular
assumptions.
(Walliman 2011)

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
Questions about rapport are raised if your research
entails close communication between you, the
researcher and the participants. Will those involved
understand the motivation for your actions and do these
conform to your own practice? You should not take
familiarity so far as to deceive in order to extract
information that the participant might later regret giving.
Neither should you raise unrealistic expectations in order
to ingratiate yourself.
(Walliman 2011)

SENSITIVE MATERIAL
Information can be thrown up that is of a sensitive nature
which, if revealed, could do damage to the participants or
to other people.
confidentiality (pp. 10-12)
anonymity
http://www.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/code_of_ethics_and_conduct.pdf
http://www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/ethics-standards/ethics-qa/ethics-qa

SENSITIVE MATERIAL: disclosure of information in legal cases
Question: I have been asked to disclose information from my notes
to help in a legal case. What information is it permissible to disclose
to solicitors, the police and the courts?

Solicitors Most commonly, the initial request for information is received from a solicitor acting on behalf of either
the client or the other side of the case. Solicitors have no power to compel the disclosure of confidential
information.
When a request for information is received from a solicitor, you will need to consider whether your client has
consented to the release of the information and whether that consent is informed. Often a consent form will be sent
by the solicitor. However, we would usually suggest that, even if you have received a consent form, you should
ensure that your client is aware of exactly what is going to be disclosed and check that they consent to that
information being released. Clients may not be aware of the exact nature or range of information contained within
their notes. You should also keep a written note of your discussion with the client about their consent, and you may
want your own detailed written consent form signed by the client.
If you believe that the information should not be disclosed because its disclosure would cause psychological
damage to your client, or because it may be misinterpreted by those without specialist training, it may be worth
contacting your client's solicitors to explain your concerns to them. If an application is later made for a court order
compelling production of the information, they may then be in a position to argue against it.

Police Enquiries from the police may be made because your client is the victim of a crime or because your client is a
suspect. Where your client is a victim, the usual requirements for client consent apply. Where your client is a suspect,
you should be cautious about releasing information. A request for information from the police does not override your duty
of confidentiality to your client.
We suggest that you first consider whether this is an exceptional situation in which there is a serious concern or an
ongoing risk to the safety of your client or others in which disclosure of the information is allowed under Section 1.2 (vi)
of the Code of Ethics and Conduct. If that is not the case, you may be able to approach your client for consent. But it
may be wise to check with the police before doing so, as informing the client of police inquiries may prejudice an
investigation. If you cannot approach your client for consent, or if consent is not forthcoming, you should only release the
information if the police are able to provide a warrant compelling you to do so.
Some other statutory agencies have powers to compel the production of information. They should be able to provide you
with evidence of this. If you receive a notice compelling you to disclose information, you should consider obtaining advice
from a solicitor, your employer's legal department or your indemnity insurer's legal helpline. The BPS Policy Advice Team
may be able to help you with ethical aspects of the request, but cannot give legal advice.

Courts The courts have wide-ranging powers to compel the production of evidence,
including documents, notes of sessions and any tape or video recordings.
A court order overrides the duty of client confidentiality, and failure to comply with an order
may be a contempt of court. The judge in the case will decide whether disclosure is necessary.
If you are given a chance when the application for an order is being considered, or if you are
asked to disclose confidential information in the witness box, you should mention your duty of
confidentiality and inform the judge of any concerns you have about the information being
disclosed. However, once the judge has made the order, you are required to comply with it,
whether or not you believe that it is correct.
.
(Walliman 2011)

HONESTY, DECEPTION AND COVERT METHODS
Any type of deception and use of covert methods should
be ruled out. Although you might argue that certain
information of benefit to society can only be gained by
these methods due to obstruction by people or
organizations that are not willing to risk being scrutinized,
how can you be sure of the benign consequences of the
actions? The risks involved make the use of deception
and covert methods extremely questionable, and in some
cases even dangerous.
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty_sites/sommerb/sommerdemo/ethics/deception

Among the most difficult ethical decisions facing the behavioral researcher is whether
of not to use deception. Deception can range from relatively minor omissions, such as
not telling people the full story of what you are doing, to outright falsehood about your
identity and the nature of the study. To deceive is to deliberately mislead others. The
issue is most relevant in experimentation where personal knowledge of the purposes
might change people's behavior.
Following publication of Stanley Milgram's classic studies of obedience in which
unwitting volunteers were asked to apply supposedly painful electric shocks to
another person (in reality, no shock was administered and the supposed victim was a
confederate of the researchers), the use of deception in social psychological research
increased in popularity along with criticism from those opposed to it. Experimenters
who employ deception are responsible for debriefing the participants -- describing the
nature of the deception, why it was done, why the approach was chosen over other
procedures not involving deception, and allowing the participant to express their
feeling about what happened.

Impersonation
With full consideration of the ethical and practical problems in using deception, many
researchers find instances where they feel it is justified. Impersonation (acting as
someone other than oneself) has been useful in understanding life in mental and
penal institutions. Researchers have themselves admitted as patients or inmates to
see the institution from the inside. The experience would be less likely to provide a
true picture if people in the setting were aware of the impersonation.
Consumer researchers sometimes impersonate customers in order to investigate
misleading marketing practices. In this case one deception is used to study another.
Social psychologists use impersonation to investigate discrimination. Researchers of
different races or ethnicity visit real estate agencies posing as prospective apartment
renters or home buyers. Afterwards they compare notes to see whether they all
received the same offers. This is probably a more valid method than asking realtors if
they discriminate among prospective tenants or homeowners on the basis of race.

Drawbacks
- Some participants may become angry and wonder whether the
researcher is simply practicing a further deception.
- Often participants figure out what is really going on, even though
the researcher attempts to hide the true purpose of the study.
- Deception may have a negative effect on the participants'
attitudes toward behavioral research.
- Finally, there is the negative effect on the researcher when forced
to lie to other people It can produce cynicism and distance from the people
being studied.

In short
Researchers should avoid deception as much as possible. It is the source
of many complaints received by IRBs. Even when it appears that it might be
advantageous to mislead others, often there are alternative ways to obtain
information without telling lies. Ask yourself whether it is absolutely
necessary to deceive other people or whether the same information could be
obtained with full disclosure or through some sort of simulation that people
know has been staged. For example, researchers have created artificial
prisons and jails in which volunteer subjects spent various periods of time in
"captivity." The module on simulation describes the power of role-playing.
Diaries kept by people who have found themselves in unusual
circumstances, such as that of conscientious objectors who have been
imprisoned, provides another source of information. Participant observation
is another approach.
(Walliman 2011)

STORING AND TRANSMITTING DATA
The Data Protection Act 1998 in the UK and equivalent regulations
elsewhere cover the conditions regarding collections of personal data in
whatever form and at whatever scale. They spell out the rights of the
subjects and responsibilities of the compilers and holders of the data. The
data that you have collected may well contain confidential details about
people and/or organizations. It is therefore important to devise a storage
system that is safe and only accessible to you. If you need to transmit data,
take measures that the method of transmission is secure and not open to
unauthorized access.
(Walliman 2011)

CHECKING DATA AND DRAFTS
- Ask colleagues or supervisors for comment, but make
sure that the content is kept confidential.
- It may be useful to use a Research Report Checklist.
What items may one of these checklists include?
NOTE: The intellectual independence of the findings of the report could be

undermined if you allow sponsors to make comments on a draft and they
demand changes to be made to conclusions that are contrary to their interests.
NOTE: It is not practical to let respondents read and edit large amounts of
primary data.
(Walliman 2011)

DISSEMINATION
Dissemination of your results in the form of conference or journal papers, a
website or other types of publication inevitably involves reducing the length
of the material, and perhaps changing the style of the writing. You must
therefore be careful that the publication remains true to the original and
avoid oversimplification, bias towards particular results or even
sensationalization.
(Walliman 2011)

DISPOSING OF RECORDS
A suitable time and methods should be decided for disposing of records.
- Ideally, this should be argued with the participants.
Basic policy ensure all data is anonymous and non-attributable
- How? Remove all labels and titles (to avoid identification)
Disposing: shredding documents, formatting discs, erasing
tapes.

Research Ethics

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Research Ethics

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Mtodos de

Unit 2: Research Ethics

Unit 2: Research Ethics

Avoid taking shortcuts and cheating

Following clear guidelines (in citation)

Organizations involved in research involving

Bera, Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research

Answer the following quiz on ethics code of conduct and reflect

Unit 2: Research Ethics

HONESTY IN YOUR WORK

Honesty in your work

Applicable to all researches

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

(The University of Chicago 2014)

Honesty in your work

The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct

(The University of Chicago 2014)

Honesty in your work

The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct

(The University of Chicago 2014)

Honesty in your work

The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

YOU NEED SOURCES CITATION

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Responsibilities to fellow researchers,

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Honesty in your work

Unit 2: Research Ethics

Situations that raise ethical

Research which involves studying people and their relationships

Situations that raise ethical

In terms of ethics, which questions may you ask yourself

Situations that raise ethical

Situations that raise ethical

Situations that raise ethical

This relates to how you present yourself in the role of the

Situations that raise ethical

-Due ethical consideration (when choosing participants, dealing

Situations that raise ethical

-Participation in the research must be dependent on the information

Situations that raise ethical

-When working with organizations, managers or other people with

-Participants may have the right to terminate their participation at

Unit 2: Research Ethics

Carrying out the research

One guideline to follow:

Carrying out the research

Carrying out the research

Carrying out the research

Carrying out the research

Carrying out the research