Importance of Research Ethics
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1. Promote truth and avoidance of error - Prohibition against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote the truth and minimize error. 2. Healthy collaboration – To strengthen trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely. 3. Accountability to the public - Federal policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subjects protections, and animal care and use are necessary in order to make sure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to the public. 4. Public support for research - People are more likely to fund a research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of research. 5. Promote a variety of other important moral and social values -Elements such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and public health and safety. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal subjects, students, and the public. For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients, and a researcher who fails to abide by regulations and guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may jeopardize his health and safety or the health and safety of staff and students. |