13: Ethics in Research

ethical research

• balances benefits and relevance of research to science w benefits/risks to individual participants

• interests and well-being of participants are respected

• participants are properly informed about nature of the research and voluntary nature of their participation

• ultimate responsibility to conduct ethical research is the researcher’s, cannot shift responsibility to external parties (IRB)

truth in reporting

• replication - repeating/conducting new study

• reproducibility - re-analyzing data

• pre-registration is meant to avoid cherry-picking and HARKing, and increase publication of nonsignificant findings

• data and materials sharing enables reviewers to access data and materials as part of review process, and readers to access data and materials (reproducibility)

• plagiarism is another truth-in-reporting issue

treatment of research participants

• informed consent: agreement w/ participants that clarifies the nature of the research and responsibilities of each party

• voluntary participation

• vulnerable populations include prisoners, children, pregnant women, and people w/ cognitive impairments

• confidentiality of research data

• deception: participants are not misinformed about the true nature of the research, should only be used when necessary

• debriefing: describing any deception used in the study after participation is complete

• ethical dilemma: researcher’s conflict when weighing cost to participants w gain to be accrued from research findings

controls and checks

• Institutional Review Board (IRB) must review and approve all human subjects research

• American Psychological Association (APA) code of ethics provides a test for and safeguard against unethical research