So last month I did a blog post about designing a research study, and as part of that mentioned how I could fill a blog post with the ethics involved in research. So, I decided to call my own bluff. This month the post is about all the different ways ethics comes into play when conducting research, especially when working with participants. This is a topic that can be a lot of work and often found tedious by some, but can also be interesting and is of course, extremely important.

So, to start let’s think about what aspects of research have ethical considerations and what ethical research actually means? Quite an easy question to answer for the first part… all of them. The second part has a slightly longer answer. Ethical research is more than just looking after participants and making sure you handle data properly (though these are important too). Ethical research includes the honesty and trustworthy of the research being conducted and is a process that goes from the design of a study all the way to publication. So, for this post it probably makes sense to break it down into the phases of research and the considerations that must be made at each point.

The first phase of research is the design and considerations that need to be made for research in studies. This is mainly to do with making studies and figuring out what exactly you are looking to learn from your research and even this early phase has ethical implications. The ethical implications can vary but the first one you would encounter is why you are doing the research, what is it you are hoping to learn and discover? Some people might approach research for the purpose of trying to prove a point, potentially with the mentality that they will present their data in whatever way helps their case. Situations like this are not ethical as while having a personal belief and doing research around it is perfectly fair, going into it with the intent to potentially be misleading has obvious issues and undermines the trust that is essential in research. This can be mitigated by ensuring that when designing your research, you are looking for answers not validation, and tyring to let your approach be lead by data rather than a confirmation bias.

The other consideration at this early design stage, is how you are going to find your answers. This is touched on in the previous post a bit, but I will give it a bit more time here and I am again primarily thinking about qualitative research with participants.
Essentially how we find out answers needs to strike a careful balance between what information we need for answering our question, and what information it is fair or reasonable to have our participants provide.
For example, if our question is that we want to know how home automation tech like smart speakers are used in a family home, is it reasonable to set up cameras and microphones in the house and record everyone for a month 24/7?
No, the answer to that is no, please don’t do that.
This would take away the privacy and dignity of your participants and be an unreasonable expectation to put on them while also gathering a lot of information you do not need. However, if we have the same question, we can instead approach it with a diary study, which would be to ask our participants to keep a diary for a month about their experience of using the smart device. Someone might say this would probably give less accurate or reliable information, and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. However, this method respects privacy and your participants dignity, making it a much more reasonable approach. Key things to consider here to help pick the correct approach, is what do you need to know, and how can you collect only that information, and also do it in a way that respects your participant.

Other design considerations are things such as who you need to work with to answer your question and what you need them to tell you. For example, when working with vulnerable participants such as those with disabilities or if you are working with sensitive data such as someone’s sexuality. In such cases, respecting privacy and anonymity becomes even more important. Working with Children also falls under this category, though with the added complexity that consent from a child is not something you can gain in the same way as with an adult. In situations when working with children it is important to ensure the child understands and is happy to take part, but it is also a requirement to have the same consent from the legal guardian. Overall, when it comes to deciding who you want in your study, keep in mind if you are recruiting the right people and taking care of them appropriately. Are you valuing their participation and activity in your study, while also respecting their privacy and right to only include what they are comfortable with in the study, even if that means someone withdraws? These aren’t the only questions you should be asking, but they are definitely questions you should absolutely always ask.

The next phase we move onto is understanding how we present all this data we have now gathered ethically. In the writing up of results and analysis of data it is important to ensure everything is handled properly. Studies often promise to keep participation anonymous, meaning the data that is presented should not be able to identify the person who provided it. This means changing names, possibly not talking about specific places they were recruited from. It can also mean being careful with how you present demographic information.
For this example, let’s say we are recruiting teachers from a school. Let’s say we contacted the school and asked them to share this advert with teachers and ensured that the school would not be told which teachers took part so nothing they say about the school can be held against them by their employer. Now if one of our participants gives negative data about the school, and in our publication we list all the demographic information for that individual next to their specific data, it may mean the school could work out who it was. This obviously then becomes an issue, as we haven’t protected their anonymity. To avoid this, we should whenever possible, list demographic information in tables separately to the data. So, we might have a table with gender, race and age etc and then talk about the data they provided without tying it back to specific demographics.
It is worth noting this isn’t always doable, for example, if you were looking at the experiences of different background compared to each other. In such a situation there are still ways to try and mitigate identification, but it is important to ensure that if there is a risk of identifying a participant, they should be informed before giving data, or during analysis if you realise there is no way to confidently anonymise them.

Next, we get to publication. Ethics in this category often take the form of where you publish and if it is open to the public. This is not always easy as the world of academic publication can be difficult to navigate, and the openness of your work isn’t always up to you. While this won’t always be in your control, it is important that when it is you work to keep your work open access so that others can benefit from what you have learned without it potentially being behind a pay wall.
It is also important at this stage to reflect on the work. Before you send it off, ask yourself, is this an honest reflection of the data you gathered, does this answer the questions you asked in an unbiased and truthful way. Before you publish something, it is essential to have this last mental check that you have done your best to do the work in a fair and honest way and that you haven’t let any personal bias, impact the work and how you have presented it.

Now, this post has rambled about a number of different aspects of ethical research, but the final thing I want to touch on is why does our research being ethical matter? Why does it matter that we respect people’s privacy and be honest and be open?
These are fair questions, and the answer comes down to trust.
Ethical research practices haven’t always been a staple of society. Ask students of history and most will be able to name one example or several of people from the past who have done research that hurt people or perpetuated misinformation. And it isn’t all confined to history, look at the recent Cass report which has received condemnation from many academics on its poor quality and apparent undeclared bias of those who constructed the report.

Research is one of the most valuable things in our society. It guides and supports us, tries to improve lives and gives access to new and wonderful opportunities. From the COVID vaccine to understanding and combatting climate change, research is the most valuable tool at our disposal. But it is a tool that loses all value if we can’t trust it. If we don’t trust the people helping improve society and our lives, how can we benefit from what they are learning and discovering. So, we have to make sure we earn that trust. We have to make sure our research is conducted in a way that ensures accuracy, that ensures honesty and ensures respect for the people who help us do the work. Only by doing this can we ensure research can be trusted and continue to make a better and ever growing society. So next time you are thinking about a study, remember that ethics is everywhere and you can always spare an extra bit of time to make sure you are doing things the right way.

I hope this post has been interesting, it was certainly interesting to write and think about, hence it taking me till the end of the month. Ethical research is important, so if you conduct research keep these thoughts in mind, as well as the several things I almost certainly won’t have thought of, or if you are taking part in a study, make sure you are being treated respectfully and being valued and keep us all honest.