Research Ethics

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Edinburgh has quite a lot to say about the topic of Research Ethics. This is a topic I’ve spent little time thinking about myself, other than the basics such as citation and attribution, transparency of source materials, etc. But Edinburgh goes much deeper. They have a formal research ethics policy that defines in detail their guiding principles. Research Ethics, according to the University, involves the application of ethical principles to research activities. These ethical principles are applied throughout the lifetime of a research project: from conception and design, via data collection and analysis, to dissemination, archiving of research materials, and beyond. Researchers have a responsibility to undertake their research with due diligence of all relevant ethical considerations.

The University stresses the role of researchers, the data they collect, how they work with participants and materials, and how they share findings with the larger public. They stress these things because they want each researcher to be prepared for the ethical issues that may arise from their projects and to make sure they have a plan to demonstrate that the research itself was conducted ethically. They go on to say the following:

“Every project will have ethical issues to consider, whether or not you are working with human participants, but research with participants puts extra responsibilities on you, and it is crucial to begin thinking about these as soon as possible in your project planning. For example, you will need to plan how to recruit participants in an ethical way; protect people’s anonymity; consider what informed consent will involve; minimize any potential risks from your research against its benefits for participants; and think about issues around data storage and protection.”