Research ethics and academic

integrity
Professor Tsvere
 Conceptions of ethics
• Morals- rules for distinguishing between right and wrong
– E.g. the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you“
• An oath like one historically taken by physicians known as the Hippocratic
Oath- First of all, “primum non nocere”, Latin translated to saying “First Do
no harm” or the morden version
– I swear to fulfil, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I
walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to
follow…
– Or The Nightingale Pledge, named in honour of Florence Nightingale, a
modified version of the Hippocratic Oath.
– E.g.
• a religious creed like the Ten Commandments "Thou Shalt not kill...”,
• Wise aphorisms like the sayings of Confucius. “Never contract friendship
with a man that is not better than yourself. Rare are those who prefer
virtue to the pleasures of sex
 Definition of research ethics
• Common definition says ethics are
– norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and
unacceptable behaviour (Resnik, 2015,
– standards for conduct that distinguish between right and wrong
– In research ethics we are specifically interested in the analysis
of ethical issues that are raised when people are involved as
participants in research.
– Acting in accordance with principles of conduct that are
considered correct, especially those of a given profession or
group Collins Dictionary (1979)

• Ethical considerations
– Are an accumulation of values and principles that address
questions of what is good or bad in human affairs.
 Stakeholders in Research- The
Researchers
• Anyone who collects information for a
specific purpose
• They adhere to accepted code of conduct
• A researcher may represent any academic
discipline.
 Stakeholders in Research- The
funding Body
• This is usually the funder of the research
• Most research is carried out using funds
provided by business organisations, service
institutions-government, research bodies,
and/or academic institutions
• The funding body may have a vested interest in
the research it is sponsoring and this could
affect the way the research is conducted or the
way the report is written.
• Each category of stakeholders in a research
activity may have
– different interest
– different perspectives
– Different purpose, aims and motivations
• These differences may affect
– the way a research activity is carried out
– the way results are communicated.
 Why there is need for research ethics
• There are several reasons why it is important to adhere
to ethical norms in research.
– Norms promote the aims of research such as knowledge,
truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions
against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research
data promote the truth and minimize error.
– since research often involves a great deal of cooperation
and coordination among many different people in different
disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote the
values that are essential to collaborative work, such as
trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness.
• For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines
for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing
policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to
protect intellectual property interests while encouraging
collaboration.
–
Why there is a need for research ethics
• Many of the ethical norms help to ensure that
researchers can be held accountable to the
public.
– For instance, policies on research misconduct,
conflicts of interest, the human subjects protection,
and animal care and use are necessary in order to
make sure that researchers who are funded by public
money can be held accountable to the public.
– Ethical norms in research also help to build public
support for research. People are more likely to fund
a research project if they can trust the quality and
integrity of research.
 Why there is need for research ethics
• Many of the norms of research promote a variety
of other important moral and social values, such
as social responsibility, human rights, animal
welfare, compliance with the law, and public
health and safety.
• Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm
human and animal subjects, students, and the
public.
– For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a
clinical trial may harm or even kill patients, and a
researcher who fails to abide by regulations and
guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may
jeopardize his health and safety or the health and
safety of staff and students.
Why are ethics important in qualitative
research?
• Following is a list of core ethical principles
that are important in qualitative research:
• Respect for persons - Respect the autonomy,
decision-making and dignity of participants. ...
• Respect for communities - Protect and respect
the values and interests of the community as a
whole and protect the community from harm
 Unethical research.
• Experiments that contravene ethical norms, e.g.
such as
– Causing harm to individuals-the protection
of research participants,
– the treatment of research animals,
– Breaching confidentiality e.g. patient confidentiality,
– consent to take part or withdraw from a study or
informing participants about the nature of the research.
– Using information improperly
– Introducing bias
 More on introducing bias
 Bias is a deliberate attempt either to hide what you
have found in your study, or highlight something
disproportionately to its true existence.
 Avoiding Bias
 Bias on the part of the researcher is unethical
 bias is different from subjectivity.
 Subjectivity is related to
○ individual educational background
○ training
○ competence in research and
○ philosophical perspective.
• It is unethical to use a method or procedure
you know to be inappropriate
– examples include
• drawing wrong conclusions,
• selecting a highly biased sample
• using an invalid instrument.
 What does it mean to be ethical in
research?
• Show proper respect and care for animals
when using them in research.
• Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly
designed animal experiments.
• Human Subjects Protection: When
conducting research on human subjects,
minimize harms and risks and maximize
benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and
autonomy.
Ethical principles
 Beneficence:

Minimising the risk of harm-

e.g. Human Subjects Protection
• When conducting research on human subjects, minimize
harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human
dignity, privacy, and autonomy;
– take special precautions with vulnerable populations; and strive
to distribute the benefits and burdens of research fairly.
• animal subjects:
– Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in
research.
– Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal
experiments.
• when the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have
any unusual hazards inherent in their use, or if it involves the use of
animal or human subjects.
 Informed consent
• is a process, not a form.
• As a researcher, it is your responsibility to educate the
participants about the study purpose, the procedures,
the risks and benefits, and obtain their consent before
involving them in your research, and keep
them informed
• Informed consent implies that subjects are made
adequately aware of the type of information you want
them to provide, why the information is being sought,
what purpose it will serve; be put to and of how it will
directly or indirectly affect them
• Providing them with the right to withdraw
 Protecting anonymity and
confidentiality.
• Protect confidential communications, such as
papers or grants submitted for publication,
personnel records, trade or military secrets,
and patient records
• Respect for people's privacy
• rights and dignity:
 Human relations
Non-Discrimination
– Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on
the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors not
related to scientific competence and integrity.
Competence
– Maintain and improve your own professional
competence and expertise through lifelong education
and learning; take steps to promote competence in
science as a whole.
Legality
– Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and
governmental policies.
Openness
– Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to
criticism and new ideas.
 Avoiding deceptive practices
Openness
– Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism
and new ideas.
Integrity
– Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for
consistency of thought and action.
Respect for Intellectual Property
– Honour patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual
property. Do not use unpublished data, methods, or results
without permission. Give proper acknowledgement or credit for
all contributions to research. Never plagiarize.
Carefulness
– Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically
examine your own work and the work of your peers.
– Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection,
research design, and correspondence with agencies or journals.
Honesty
• Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly
report data, results, methods and procedures, and
publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent
data. Do not deceive colleagues, research sponsors, or the
public.

Objectivity
• Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis,
data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant
writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research
where objectivity is expected or required.
• Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception.
• Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect
research.
 Ethics when writing for publication

• Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to

advance just your own career.
• Originality and plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they
have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used
the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately
cited or quoted
• Data access and retention: Authors may be asked to provide the
raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should
be prepared to provide public access to such data.
• Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication: An author should
not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same
research in more than one journal or primary publication.
 Ethics when writing for publication cont.

• Acknowledgement of sources: Proper

acknowledgment.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: All submissions
must include disclosure of all relationships that could
be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
• Fundamental errors in published works: When an
author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in
his/her own published work, it is the author's
obligation to promptly notify the journal /book editor
or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or
correct the paper.
 Ethics when writing for publication cont.

• Reporting standards: Authors of reports of

original research should present an accurate
account of the work performed as well as an
objective discussion of its significance.
• Use of patient images or case details: Studies
on patients or volunteers require ethics
committee approval and informed consent,
which should be documented in the paper
Ethical dilemmas
Ethical Issues regarding the sponsoring
organization
 Restrictions Imposed by the sponsoring organization
 sometimes there may be direct or indirect controls
exercised by sponsoring organisations.
 Sponsors may
 select the methodology,
 prohibit the publication of what was found
 impose other restrictions on the research that
may stand in the way of obtaining and
disseminating accurate information
• Both the imposition and acceptance of these
controls and restrictions are unethical
– they constitute interference and could amount to
the sponsoring organization tailoring research
findings to meet its vested interest
 Offering Incentives
• Is it ethical to provide incentives to respondents to
share information with you?
• Some Researchers provide incentives to participants
for their participation in a study as an appreciation of
their time.
• Others think that the offering is unethical.
• However, most of the participants do not participate
in a study because of incentives but because they
realize the importance of the study.
• Giving incentives b4 is collecting data is
unethical because the respondent will be
providing answers just to please the
researcher.
• Giving a small token after having obtained
your information is ethical
 Seeking Sensitive information
• Information sought can pose ethical dilemmas
in Research
• Certain information may be regarded as
sensitive or confidential by some people
• Asking for this information may upset or
embarrass a respondent
– That may constitute an invasion of privacy
• However, if you do not ask for the information, it may
not be possible to pursue your interest in the area and
contribute to the body of knowledge.
• For most people questions on the following areas may
be sensitive
 Sexual Behaviour.
 Drug use
 Income levels
 Age
 Marital status
 The possibility of causing Harm to
Participants
• Is the research going to cause harm to
participants in any way?
• Harm includes….”not only hazardous medical
experiments but also any social research that
might involve such things as comfort, anxiety
harassment, inversion of privacy, or
demeaning dehumanising procedures”
….Bailey (1976)
• If the research is likely to harm respondents,
you must try to minimize the risk as a
researcher.
• Minimum risk means that the extent of harm
or discomfort in the research is not greater
than those ordinarily encountered in daily life.
 Maintaining confidentiality
• Sharing information about the respondent with
others for the purpose other than research is
unethical.
• Therefore you need to ensure that after the
information has been collected, its source cannot be
known.
• However, where you need to visit respondents
repeatedly, you have to identify them until the
research is completed.
 Provision or deprivation of a
treatment.

• Both the provision and deprivation of a

treatment may pose an ethical dilemma
for a researcher
– when testing an intervention or a treatment,
a researcher usually adopts a control
experiment design.
– What should be done?- discuss
 Ethical issues in online research
 Technology creates unethical dilemmas
 Data privacy- how private is information provided by e-
mail , list servers
 Anonymity
 Confidentiality
 Integrity
 Copyright issues
 Informed consent- difficult to establish in cyberspace
 Interpretation of online discourse
 let us open
http:www.und.ac.za/users/clarke/web2000/pc.pdf
 In Google.Scholar type in Internet research ethics,
Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy
 Readings
• Adapted from Shamoo A and Resnik D. 2015.
Responsible Conduct of Research, 3rd ed. (New
York: Oxford University Press).
• Singapore Statement on Research Integrity,
• the Nuremberg Code, Code of Ethics (American
Society for Clinical Laboratory Science),
• the World Medical Association's Declaration of
Helsinki, Statement on Professional Ethics
(American Association of University Professors)