Identify potential ethical challenges associated with specific research methods

Ethical conduct is the bedrock of responsible research practice. We'll explore foundational ethical principles such as informed consent, data privacy, and avoiding plagiarism. Understanding these principles ensures the integrity and credibility of your research, while protecting the rights of participants.

Here's why ethics are crucial:

• Protecting Participants: Ethical guidelines safeguard research subjects, whether humans or animals, from physical or psychological risks. Informed consent guarantees participants understand the research and can freely choose involvement.
• Valid and Reliable Results: Ethical research practices, like data integrity and avoiding bias, produce trustworthy findings. Unreliable data can lead to wasted resources and potentially harmful misinterpretations.
• Public Trust: Ethical research fosters public confidence in scientific discoveries. Transparency and responsible conduct assure the public the research is conducted for the greater good.
• Responsible Use of Resources: Ethical research ensures resources, like funding and time, are used appropriately. Avoiding misconduct prevents wasted resources and allows for more impactful research.

Now, let us look at the ethics in experimental research. During the World War II, Nazi scientists conducted some gross experiments, such as, immersing people in ice water to determine how long it would take them to freeze to death. They also injected prisoners with newly developed drugs to determine their effectiveness and many died in the process.

However, these experiments were conducted by individuals living in a demented society and are universally condemned as unethical and inhumane. Research in education involves humans as subjects – students, teachers, school administrators, parents and so forth. These individuals have certain rights, such as the right to privacy that may be violated if you are to attempt to arrive at answers to many significant questions.

Obviously, this becomes a dilemma for the researcher, whether to conduct the experiment and violate the rights of subjects or abandon the study. Surely, you have heard people say, “I guess we are the guinea pigs in this study!” “We are your lab rats!”

Any researcher conducting an experiment must ensure that the dignity and welfare of the subjects are maintained. The American Psychological Association published the Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants in 1982. The document listed the following principles:

(a)     In planning a study, the researcher must take responsibility to ensure that the study respects human values and protect the rights of human subjects.

(b)    The researcher should determine the degree of risk imposed on subjects by the study (such as, stress on subjects and subjects required to take drugs).

(c)     The principal researcher is responsible for the ethical conduct of the study, and for assistants or other researchers involved.

(d)    The researcher should make it clear to the subjects, before they participate in the study, regarding their obligations and responsibilities. The researcher should inform subjects of all aspects of the research that might influence their decision to participate.

(e)     If the researcher cannot tell everything about the experiment because it is too technical or it will affect the study, then the researcher must inform subjects after the experiment.

(f)     The researcher should respect the individual’s freedom to decline to participate in or withdraw from the experiment at any time.

(g)    The researcher should protect subjects from physical and mental discomfort, harm and danger that may arise from the experiment. If there are risks involved, the researcher must inform the subjects of that fact.

h)     Information obtained from the subjects in the experiment is confidential unless otherwise agreed upon. Data should be reported as group performance and not individual performance.

There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research.  Let’s watch this video.