Ethics is usually defined in relation to standards of conduct or as a set of moral principles or moral judgments (between right and wrong). Research is not a purely technical or instrumental activity - it should be a reflective activity with moral underpinnings. We all need prompts to ensure that we keep learning. Ethics helps us through the cycle of doing, reflecting, doing better next time.
Put another way, how we research (process) matters as much as what we produce (outputs). Research processes are important for a number of reasons:
To ensure that we 'do no harm'. Our research may not - often will not -bring benefits to those we research. It is important that we take precautions to ensure that it does not make matters worse.
To help manage the uncertainty, uniqueness and dilemmas that are an inevitable part of research. For example, with regard to interviewing members of vulnerable groups, how should we balance 'validating the interviewee/victim', which implies empathy, acknowledgement and belief, with 'validating the story', which involves questioning, greater distance, and even a certain scepticism?
To ensure that our research relationships are not exploitative.
To protect our personal reputation, as well as that of our discipline, department and university.
To ensure that we do not 'spoil the field' for other researchers who come after us.
A range of tools are available to help researchers, from professional and disciplinary codes, to standard techniques such as informed consent. Informed consent is a good place to start when thinking about the core principles of ethical research:
Disclosure (is the interviewee fully informed about you and your institutional affiliations, as well as your methods, purpose, any risks and potential benefits)
Voluntariness/respecting autonomy (participation must be fully voluntary - without coercion, undue influence or misrepresentation)
Comprehension (interviewees must comprehend the implications of the interview: 'going public', 'on' and 'off record' comments, etc.)
Competence (for example, children or people who are traumatised)
Ethical research practice is best understood as a means of improving your research, and your skills as a researcher. The pages of this website are designed to make this as painless as possible.
All ethics applications are different and raise different questions and concerns. This is the nature of ethical reflection and inquiry. However, there are a number of common issues that arise:
Incomplete or inconsistent application materials: Please be sure to complete all sections of the application and ensure that you are consistent across materials. If the committee has incomplete or contradictory information, it is difficult to assess potential ethical issues.
Insufficient attention to anonymity: Consider, for example, if and how you can genuinely ensure anonymity to respondents. For example, if you are conducting focus group interviews, respondents will be known to one another; if you are interviewing people with a highly specific job role within an organisation they may be publicly identifiable. Complete anonymity is not a blanket requirement, rather it is important to think carefully about how you will treat the information that respondents provide to you, and ensure that your research does not cause unanticipated harms.
Insufficient attention to risks for the researcher: For example, where research is planned in potentially dangerous settings, risk mitigation strategies may include:
inform someone of your whereabouts before each interview, check-in with a designated friend or colleague after you complete each interview, and/or identify an emergency contact in the research site;
if the research topic is potentially sensitive or may be distressing to the researcher, outline strategies to manage both respondent and researcher wellbeing, e.g., for respondent you may identify referral organisations, for the researcher, consider regular debriefing sessions;
if research requires international travel, note that you will consult / have consulted York’s travel and risk-assessment guidelines.
For university guidelines on research ethics, see York’s code of practice and principles for good ethical governance.
For researchers conducting studies outside of the UK, please see York’s guidance for conducting research outside the UK.
For researchers conducting studies related to terrorism, with human subjects or not, please see York’s guidance on Prevent.
For guidance on managing the risks presented by international research activities, see the York guidance on trusted research.
For researchers using social media data, please see York’s guidance on using social media data in research.
For researchers conducting research that requires travel, consult York’s travel insurance page (including risk assessment information).
These resources from funders and professional associations may be useful when considering the ethical implications of research.
Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) - Research ethics guidance
British Sociological Association - Guidelines on Ethical Research
Anything missing? Please share any additional resources with socsci-ethics@york.ac.uk.