Ethics in Research

Ethics should be applied on all stages of research, such as planning, conducting and evaluating a research project.

The first thing to do before designing a study is to consider the potential cost and benefits of the research.

RESEARCH - COST AND BENEFITS-ANALYSIS

We evaluate the cost and benefits for most decisions in life, whether we are aware of it or not.

This can be quite a dilemma in some experiments. Stem cell research is one example of an area with difficult ethical considerations.

As a result, stem cell research is restricted in many countries, because of the major and problematic ethical issues.

ETHICAL STANDARDS - RESEARCHERS SHOULD...

• avoid any risk of considerably harming people, the environment, or property unnecessarily. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an example of a study which seriously violated these standards.
• not use deception on people participating, as was the case with the ethics of the Stanley Milgram Experiment
• obtain informed consent from all involved in the study.
• preserve privacy and confidentiality whenever possible.
• take special precautions when involving populations or animals which may not be considered to understand fully the purpose of the study.
• not offer big rewards or enforce binding contracts for the study. This is especially important when people are somehow reliant on the reward.
• not plagiarize the work of others
• not skew their conclusions based on funding.
• not commit science fraud, falsify research or otherwise conduct scientific misconduct. A con-study, which devastated the public view of the subject for decades, was the study of selling more coke and popcorn by unconscious ads.

  The researcher said that he had found great effects from subliminal messages, whilst he had, in fact, never conducted the experiment.

• not use the position as a peer reviewer to give sham peer reviews to punish or damage fellow scientists.

Basically, research must follow all regulations given, and also anticipate possible ethical problems in their research.

Competition is an important factor in research, and may be both a good thing and a bad thing.

Whistleblowing is one mechanism to help discover misconduct in research.