Question

When conducting research, it is imperative that all researchers, whether they be college professors, practitioners in the field, or graduate or undergraduate students, adhere to high ethical standards in their work. Describe three different ethical standards that researchers should follow. Illustrate each one with a concrete example.

Answer 1

Ethical practice in research is very important to justify the research results and pave way for further research. If the data or the results are fabricated, then the futre assumptions and the present stakeholders, especially if it is a funded project will be wrong. There are many aspects of ethical research and I would like to brief on the following three.

1. Integrity - Honesty is the best policy, even in research. All the stakeholders such as the funding agency, the subjects of the research etc. should be informed about the research before it starts. Once informed there shouldn't be any change and if at all there is any change it should be informed to the people concerned and their consent should be acquired before proceeding further.

2. Objectivity - Objectivity of the research will definitely affect the results of the research. For example the researcher shouldn't put his own assumptions and pre-determined conclusions on the research that they conduct. This will change the original result of the result. Sometime, few researchers, if they have already have a conclusion in mind, they may try to influence the research result analysis by incorporating their view as well.

3. Confidentiality - This is the most important thing in terms of research ethics. All the data related to the subjects should be kept confidential because leak of this data will affect the subjects in multiple way. Sharing of data should be informed to the subjects in advance and they should have given their consent.