Research Ethics: Protecting Participants and Protecting the Truth

Ethics can sound like a box you tick before data collection. It is much more than that. In lesson 18 of Research Basics, we go through research ethics with Bhattacherjee’s chapter, and check its 2012 points against the current U.S. rules and the current AIS code. We cover the definition of ethics and why unethical is not always illegal, voluntary participation and protection from harm, and the classroom example of bonus points. On informed consent, the book describes written forms, but consent and a signature are separate questions: under 45 CFR 46, an IRB can waive consent itself in some circumstances, or only the signed form in others, each under specific conditions. For children, the rules depend on the applicable legal consent age, with provisions for assent and parental permission, and the rule sets a minimum of three years of retention for the records it covers. Anonymity and confidentiality protect people in different ways, and the protection you can offer depends on your design. The book describes cases where research records were sought in court, and notes Certificates of Confidentiality, which not every project qualifies for. Then disclosure and debriefing, honest analysis and reporting, IRBs and exemptions decided through institutional procedures, and the current AIS Code of Research Conduct: category one, category two, and advice. The diagrams are my own teaching illustrations of the sources’ points. This is a general introduction, not legal advice; follow the process your own institution requires. Try it yourself: think about your next study. What is one ethical risk in it, around identifiers, consent or reporting, and what is your plan for it? Research Basics playlist    • Research Basics   Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:32 Sources 1:01 What is research ethics? 1:37 Unethical is not always illegal 2:09 Voluntary participation and protection from harm 3:35 Informed consent 4:19 Anonymity and confidentiality 4:53 Protection depends on the design 5:36 Certificates of Confidentiality 6:18 Disclosure 7:05 Analysis and reporting 8:32 Institutional Review Boards 10:15 Codes of conduct 10:42 The current AIS code 12:20 Recap 13:11 Your turn Sources Anol Bhattacherjee (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices. Chapter 16. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/oa_tex... Textbook excerpts: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. The excerpts are cropped, enlarged and highlighted; these excerpt adaptations are shared under the same license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, 45 CFR part 46, Protection of Human Subjects (current eCFR text). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45... Association for Information Systems, Code of Research Conduct (current version, November 2013). https://conduct.aisnet.org/research-c... National Institutes of Health, Information Protected by a Certificate of Confidentiality. https://www.grants.nih.gov/policy-and... Illustrative footage from Pexels, not footage of a study: Kampus Production, https://www.pexels.com/video/a-woman-... Tima Miroshnichenko, https://www.pexels.com/video/a-young-... https://www.pexels.com/license/