Creating Postgraduate Collaborations › Forums › CPC Supervision Development Course › Module 4 › Module 4, Session 1: Ethics in Research
Tagged: Ethical consideration, Ethics issues, Field
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This forum is for your thoughts on issues of ethics covered in this module.
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The commonest ethical issues in my field including social, plagiarism and rarely environmental.
Environmental issues includes disposal of wastes during experiment establishment but this is commonly addressed during experimental planning. Usually it rarely happens because most of the experiments are set up in collaboration with a technical staff. Social ethics are common during social data collection but this is addressed by seeking authorization in writing and giving a commitment that the data collected will be kept confidential and for scientific use only.
Plagiarism is very common, however, currently there is an ant- plagiarism policy and it stipulates minimum plagiarism levels above which students thesis or project can be rejected and subjected conditionally. Most students who do plagiarism have difficulties in explaining their work because they lack confidence to defend what they have copiedF
The common ethical issues in my field include the issue of confidentiality when dealing with human subject research. This is particularly when the research participants are from vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, children or minors below age of consent, the elderly and the physically or mentally challenges individuals.
Academic plagiarism is also a common ethical issue which is never addressed by IRBs during reviews but is left for supervisors and examiners to control for. This makes the work of supervision even more pressurizing and usually a huge task as the supervisor has to be versed with the various tools available for measuring level of plagiarism and the available policies that provide guidelines for anti plagiarism.
Ethical issues encompass the whole of the research process beginning from the research idea/problem. A researcher has to be conscious of the ethical implications of the research idea they are proposing. The awareness should be with regards to the research participants, the researcher, and the broader communities that are likely to be affected by the outcome of the research. This means that the research ideas articulated, the research questions raised, the methodology, analysis, policy implications, among others are all pregnant with ethical issues. Though a small section is usually set at the end to enumerate the ethical issues, these are all implied in the whole research cycle. Subsequently, a researcher has to be conscious on language used and actions taken at any stage of research.
I am in sociology of religion and my research engagement span from gender, community development to peace and conflict studies, and the implication of religious institutions on all these. My concern though is mainly with the research participants. The key question I ask is how are my research participants engaged in the research process? Do they know my research idea? What do they have to say about it? Will it benefit them and the larger community? How can I engage them to ensure that they feel part and parcel of the process? How do I compensate their engagement? Further, How then do we move this beyond the community level to engage key stakeholders that can take up the implementation agenda to benefit as many as possible? Who will get the benefits and who will not, and for what reason? How justifiable is this? The benefits do not have to be tangible. It could be ideas that then translate into practise for the benefit of all. How then are these ideas shared? With who and under what justification? Are there any risks posed by my research? TO who and how? How can these be mitigated? What advice can I get from the research participants to ensure proper mitigation strategies? These are just a few questions that inform some of my thinking while paying attention to ethical issues.
How can we nurture ethical responsibility in our students?
I think this starts early during coursework, either at undergrad or masters levels. It should be a deliberate effort to help them understand the importance of ethical processes not just in research but in the academy. There quite a lot of useful literature on research ethics that we can direct them to but beyond this is practise, beginning with library research, and issues of how to be truthful – citing where necessary/avoiding plagiarism and correct referencing. At masters and PhD levels they should be fully exposed to the ethical research processes, and probably go through a course in research ethics. Alternatively, integrate research ethics into research methodology courses.
On the issue of obtaining research clearance, my university has a clear guideline to this. This is the last stages of all postgraduate research proposals. They have to be reviewed by the ethics committee. We are lucky that we do have a University review committee that serves not just the students but also Kenyan and international researchers.
I agree that in all our researches we must adhere to ethical issues that involve humans, animals, and the environment. The PPT ignites our quest for knowledge should have integrity, honesty, and respect for other people’s ideas.
Most of the issues raised in the PPT are practiced in my University. We have installed plagiarism software that all projects are subjected too. I believe honesty must be a virtue for all researchers and postgraduate students. My field is more theoretical in nature and, contact with humans and animals is not there. However, the risk of theft of ideas (unless quoted) in correspondences/consultations before publication may exist but is minimal.
In our country, in addition to the Univerity ethical policies and practice, there are bodies that approve researches involving animals and bodies.Most of the issues covered are applicable in my institution. There exists a plagiarism software which not only applies to PG students but also on Undergraduate projects. If need be, term papers can also be subjected to this process to ensure originality and stress on the virtue of honesty in academics. Ethics in research should be instilled and upheld through out the research process hence forms part and parcel of mentorship.
In my field of study, the pertinent ethical issues include; keeping research reports for future reference, objective allocation of credit, open and honest declaration of financial resources, honest declaration of results without fabrication and ethical clearance since the field deals with the marine environment.
To nurture ethics in students, they should be aware of the Do’s and Dont’s in the field and the implications of the same. This is done done through out the mentoring, supervising and coaching processes.
Ethics in research is critical. However in my discipline of Literary arts, the purview of ethics is rather limited as we deal more with the imaginary rather than the real world. But there are still concerns of ethical protocols and principles. The most critical has to do with plagiarism because of the nature of the discipline that privileges the reading of primary and secondary texts. Honesty is therefore paramount. The other ethical concern is with the topics and the way that the discussions are presented. For instance the analysis and discussion should be sensitive to gender, race, religious beliefs, the vulnerable, to avoid stigmatization, stereotypes and what can be construed as ‘dangerous ideologies’.
However, the performative inflections of literary arts such as theatre and orature where human beings are involved will require consent, confidentiality, respect, trust and justiceThanks to all those who participated so far in the forum on ethics of research. We see that the importance of reflection on ethics of research has increased in recent years. The responses point out a number of dilemmas and questions:
1. A common response is that related to so-called plagiarism. A common approach is the use of software such as Turn It In to detect the extent to which students have copied materials without proper acknowledgement. This is a repressive approach, aimed at penalising the perpetrators. It would be interesting to reflect on how your institution has taken measures of prevention: how are students made to reflect on their research practices in order to avoid them taking recourse to copying other researchers’work?
2. Some of you point to the issues of how participants in research projects will ultimately benefit from the research. Such an approach would likely require the involvement of participants from the very first stages of research, so even in the formulation of research questions and the drafting of research designs. Do your institutions encourage such involvement?
3. Finally, there are some comments about the implementation of ethics policies. Do you have observations on how ethics boards at your institutions actually work and whether their work is taken seriously by researchers in their everyday research practices or is the work of the ethics boards simply seen as another bureaucratic hurdle to take before the research can start?
In my field, in economics, the subject matter of the research varies including human behavior to firm decisions to government policies, to name a few. Therefore, ethical issues vary as well.
Various software tools are available for the use of lecturers/supervisors to detect plagiarism and measure its level. But pre-research guidance and training of students on ethical issues are really rare.
Proper efforts to equip students with the responsibility of academic integrity including plagiarism from the very beginning of university education are must for students to be more aware of their academic obligations to undertake research in ethical ways throughout their whole academic life(I haven’t needed it for my personal research, but as far as I know)at my institution, the approval of ethics review committee is required at the research proposal stage if the research necessitate an ethical clearance. However, it is not checked for every proposal whether an ethics approval required or not. This also relies on the judgement of research proposal committee.
(thank you all)
In my field, in economics, the subject matter of the research varies including human behavior to firm decisions to government policies, to name a few. Therefore, ethical issues vary as well.
Various software tools are available for the use of lecturers/supervisors to detect plagiarism and measure its level. But pre-research guidance and training of students on ethical issues are really rare.
Proper efforts to equip students with the responsibility of academic integrity including plagiarism from the very beginning of university education are must for students to be more aware of their academic obligations to undertake research in ethical ways throughout their whole academic life(I haven’t needed it for my personal research, but as far as I know)at my institution, the approval of ethics review committee is required at the research proposal stage if the research necessitate an ethical clearance. However, it is not checked for every proposal whether an ethics approval required or not. This also relies on the judgement of research proposal committee.
(thank you all)
@ Wil, you have touched on very fundamental structures which I think influence prevailing perspectives and approaches to ethics in research.
In response to point 3, my opinion is that some postgraduate students will continue to approach Ethics Committee Boards as another ‘bureaucratic hurdle’ standing in the way of research if the application of certain national and institutional policies are not reconsidered. For example in South Africa, there is a “goal to increase doctoral output by 5000 in 2030” (National Planning Commission 2011)
https://www.gov.za/documents/national-development-plan-2030-our-future-make-it-workWhile it is of utmost importance to accord ethical considerations in research the priority it deserves, negative cognitive structures constructed by the application of such policies need to be redressed through dialogue, role-modelling and sense-making, to allow for robust sense-giving of ethical considerations (including plagiarism policies, over-estimation of research outcomes/under-estimation of ethical issues in research proposals etc.) in research.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
I am in the social sciences and therefore I would be more concerned with ethical issues regarding humans. Key ethical issues fin my area of research would be issues of plagiarism in proposing and reporting research findings, keeping research records, and honest interpretation and ethics involving humans. The issues declaring financial resources and allocation of credits has not been an issue since in most cases students work and publications are self sponsored.
In a more specific issues concerning humans in research, all the four ethical considerations (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice) have been points of considerations in all the research I supervise.I try to nurture ethical responsibility in students by first teaching them what is required of them in the research process right from proposal writing, research instrument development, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, reporting of the findings and publication. Apart from teaching there is active monitoring of the research process.
In my institution, we don’t have an ethics committee. However, there is a board that looks at researches done at the university level, school level and also at departmental level. The committees are not specific on ethical issues. I hope this can be implemented soonest because ethics are important in every research.
Suggestions on how to nurture ethical responsibility in our students
I think it is important to first introduce a session on what are ethical issues with the students. These issues could be going through examples in different fields. Then assist them to learn the basic ethical issues that deal with writing articles by using anti plagarism softwares, proper citations, going through the university and countries rules governing research ethics.
Deliberations about processes for obtaining ethical clearance at your institution.
In my institution, their is a credited ethics committee; Moi University College of Health Sciences / Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Institutional Research and Ethics Committee. They have a standard form where you fill out based on your proposal. The committee will then meet and deliberate and give feedback either to approve or to request for further clarification in issues raised. They only give clearence certificate if they are satisfied that all issues have been delt with satisfactorythe most common issue is plagiarism
students should be guided from the conception of the topic. Students should be made aware that they are not supposed to make duplication of what is already available. the emphasis should be placed on creativity and uniqueness.
obtaining ethical clearance in our institution is a process. proposals are submitted to school higher degrees committee for approval, then to the university higher degrees committee, on approval students complete forms for registration of projects. then ethical clearance is certificates are issued.
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