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Section 3 Issues and concerns in research and consultation

3.22 Ethical practice in research

What is ethical research practice?

Ethical research practice refers to values and rules of conduct in research and consultation. Many professions and organisations that engage in research have developed codes of ethics or sets of ethical principles. Today’s increasing focus on corporate responsibilities and changing legislation on Human Rights, Freedom of Information and Data Protection continue to bring ethical considerations in the practice of research and consultation much more to the fore.

There is no research governance framework within the social housing sector in Scotland. Although the regulatory framework considers the quality and robustness of approaches used to gather service users’ views, the inspection process largely focuses on the use of the feedback rather than the process of gathering it. However, useful codes of ethics for researchers engaged in social housing research can be obtained from:

• Social Research Association (SRA), Ethical Guidelines

• British Sociological Association (BSA), Statement of Ethical Practice for the British Sociological Association

• United Kingdom Evaluation Society (UKES), Guidelines for Good Practice in Evaluation

There is ongoing debate in social research about what is and what is not ethically acceptable and it is important that researchers are aware of and are sensitive to areas and issues of possible ethical concern.

Ethical research practice and quality

There is a link between ethical research practice and quality. Research and consultation that has been conducted without due attention to ethical practice is unlikely to be of a high quality. Given inevitable constraints on resources and time, it may seem expedient to cut corners and perhaps disregard protocols designed to safeguard participants. Often a research commissioner may be unaware that this is happening. However, it is likely to undermine the quality of the data, affect the credibility of the findings and may jeopardise any future research and consultation exercises. See the section on the criteria for assessing the quality of research and consultation.

Practice Point

• It will be important to establish required ethical standards and to monitor their implementation, particularly within a contracting environment, without imposing an undue burden on in-house staff or contractors themselves.

Main areas of ethical concern

The main areas of ethical concern are presented below and there is some overlap between them. Consulting codes of conduct is a useful way to obtain greater detail on these issues and to develop awareness of other possible ethical concerns.

Is the research objective and competent?

Research design, implementation and dissemination should not be biased or misleading. The research design should allow for both positive and negative findings and methods of data collection should be appropriate for the research question and the type of data (quantitative or qualitative) that is sought. Researchers should be unbiased in their treatment of research participants, in administering their data collection and in reporting findings.

Will the research cause harm to participants?

Harm or risk to participants may include anxiety and stress; loss of self-esteem; detrimental effects on development; physical harm and persuading participants to take part in reprehensible activities. A general rule of thumb is that research can be regarded as likely to cause harm or risk if it entails participants’ experiencing more harm or risk than they would encounter in everyday life.

Although it is not possible to identify or anticipate the likelihood of harm in all circumstances, researchers should consider the possibility carefully and take steps to minimise it. This includes thinking about harm that may be caused if participants are identified or are identifiable.

Researchers need to ensure that information and records about individual participants are kept confidential and the identity of individuals remains anonymous. It is particularly important that in published materials individuals are not identified nor can they be identified by references to, for example, a town or an event, unless they give their consent to this. It is quite acceptable to change the names of people and places to maintain anonymity.

Is it necessary to obtain informed consent from research participants?

Informed consent refers to researchers providing potential participants with as much information as possible about the proposed research and its possible implications so that they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to participate.

Researchers should not withhold information that might affect potential participants’ willingness to take part in the research. Potential participants should be made aware that they are under no obligation to participate and that they can withdraw information or themselves from the research at any stage.

Seeking the informed consent of potential participants is standard courtesy in research but there are some circumstances in which seeking informed consent is difficult. For example, the unstructured and evolving nature of much qualitative research may mean that researchers are not in a position to give detailed information to potential participants in advance and if the research involves contact with many people, it may not be practicable to gain informed consent from everyone. The general rule of thumb referred to above can be applied again here; if the research is likely to cause more harm or risk to participants than they would encounter in everyday life, then informed consent should be secured.

Will the research invade participants’ privacy?

Giving consent to be involved in a piece of research does not mean that participants have surrendered all rights to privacy. Even if a participant has given their consent they may feel that some research questions are an invasion of their privacy and they may not want to answer. This situation should be acknowledged and respected by researchers. Privacy issues also relate to issues of anonymity and confidentiality. To reiterate the points made earlier, it is important that personal information relating to participants is kept confidential (in fact, it may be more appropriate not to record highly sensitive information at all), and it is important that the identity of participants is protected and anonymised.

Does the research involve deceiving participants?

This really all depends on what is meant by deception. In some cases, it may not be possible for a researcher to know all the details of a research approach in advance. Participants should be given accurate information about what is known in advance and procedures adopted for ensuring continuing consent as the process evolves. This is about acting in good faith on the basis of what is known at the time and always having regard for the wellbeing of the research participants.

Deliberate deception of participants is ethically objectionable but it can be extremely difficult to know where the boundaries lie between ethical and unethical practices. These difficulties are widely recognised and although guidance in codes of ethics is useful it often leaves room for interpretation. It is helpful to consult several codes of ethics if coming to a decision over a possible issue of deception is presenting a problem.

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