Research Ethics: Definition, Principles and Advantages

Table of Contents

What is Research Ethics?

Ethics are the set of rules that govern our expectations of our own and others’ behavior.
Research ethics are the set of ethical guidelines that guides us on how scientific research should be conducted and disseminated.
Research ethics govern the standards of conduct for scientific researchers It is the guideline for responsibly conducting the research.
Research that implicates human subjects or contributors rears distinctive and multifaceted ethical, legitimate, communal and administrative concerns.
Research ethics is unambiguously concerned in the examination of ethical issues that are upraised when individuals are involved as participants in the study.
Research ethics committee/Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews whether the research is ethical enough or not to protect the rights, dignity and welfare of the respondents.

Objectives of Research Ethics:

The first and comprehensive objective – to guard/protect human participants, their dignity, rights and welfare .
The second objective – to make sure that research is directed in a manner that assists welfares of persons, groups and/or civilization as a whole.
The third objective – to inspect particular research events and schemes for their ethical reliability, considering issues such as the controlling risk, protection of privacy and the progression of informed consent.

Principles of Research Ethics:

The general principles of research ethics are:

Honesty	Being honest with the beneficiaries and respondents. Being honest about the findings and methodology of the research. Being honest with other direct and indirect stakeholders.
Integrity	Ensuring honesty and sincerity. Fulfilling agreements and promises. Do not create false expectations or make false promises.
Objectivity	Avoiding bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, and other aspects of research.
Informed consent	Informed consent means that a person knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently gives consent to participate in a research. Informed consent is related to the autonomous right of the individual to participate in the research. Informing the participant about the research objective, their role, benefits/harms (if any) etc.
Respect for person/respondent	It includes: autonomy, which requires that those who are capable of deliberation about their personal goals should be treated with respect for their capacity for self-determination; and protection of persons with impaired or diminished autonomy, which requires that those who are dependent or vulnerable be afforded security against harm or abuse.
Beneficence	Maximize the benefits of the participants. Ethical obligation to maximize possible benefits and to minimize possible harms to the respondents.
Non-maleficence/ Protecting the subjects (human)	Do no harm. Minimize harm/s or risks to the human. Ensure privacy, autonomy and dignity.
Responsible publication	Responsibly publishing to promote and uptake research or knowledge. No duplicate publication.
Protecting anonymity	It means keeping the participant anonymous. It involves not revealing the name, caste or any other information about the participants that may reveal his/her identity.
Confidentiality	Protecting confidential information, personnel records. It includes information such as: Introduction and objective of the research Purpose of the discussion Procedure of the research Anticipated advantages, benefits/harm from the research (if any) Use of research Their role in research Right to refuse or withdraw Methods which will be used to protect anonymity and confidentiality of the participant Freedom to not answer any question/withdraw from the research Who to contact if the participant needs additional information about the research.
Non-discrimination	Avoid discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, ethnicity or other factors that are violation of human rights and are not related to the study.
Openness	Be open to sharing results, data and other resources. Also accept encouraging comments and constructive feedback.
Carefulness and respect for intellectual property	Be careful about the possible error and biases. Give credit to the intellectual property of others. Always paraphrase while referring to others article, writing. Never plagiarize.
Justice	The obligation to distribute benefits and burdens fairly, to treat equals equally, and to give reasons for differential treatment based on widely accepted criteria for just ways to distribute benefits and burdens.

Broad Categorization of Principles of Research Ethics:

Broadly categorizing, there are mainly five principles of research ethics:

1. MINIMIZING THE RISK OF HARM

It is necessary to minimize any sort of harm to the participants. There are a number of forms of harm that participants can be exposed to. They are:

Bodily harm to contributors.
Psychological agony and embarrassment.
Social drawback.
Violation of participant’s confidentiality and privacy.

In order to minimize the risk of harm, the researcher/data collector should:

Obtain informed consent from participants.
Protecting anonymity and confidentiality of participants.
Avoiding misleading practices when planning research.
Providing participants with the right to withdraw.

2. OBTAINING INFORMED CONSENT

One of the fundamentals of research ethics is the notion of informed consent.

Informed consent means that a person knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently gives consent to participate in a research.

Informed consent means that the participants should be well-informed about the:

Introduction and objective of the research
Purpose of the discussion
Anticipated advantages, benefits/harm from the research (if any)
Use of research
Their role in research
Methods which will be used to protect anonymity and confidentiality of the participant
Freedom to not answer any question/withdraw from the research
Who to contact if the participant need additional information about the research

3. PROTECTING ANONYMITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of research participants is an additionally applied constituent of research ethics.

Protecting anonymity: It means keeping the participant anonymous. It involves not revealing the name, caste or any other information about the participants that may reveal his/her identity.

Maintaining confidentiality: It refers to ensuring that the information given by the participant are confidential and not shared with anyone, except the research team. It is also about keeping the information secretly from other people.

4. AVOIDING MISLEADING PRACTICES

The researcher should avoid all the deceptive and misleading practices that might misinform the respondent.
It includes avoiding all the activities like communicating wrong messages, giving false assurance, giving false information etc.

5. PROVIDING THE RIGHT TO WITHDRAW

Participants have to have the right to withdraw at any point of the research.
When any respondent decides on to withdraw from the research, they should not be stressed or forced in any manner to try to discontinue them from withdrawing.

Apart from the above-mentioned ethics, other ethical aspects things that must be considered while doing research are:

Protection of vulnerable groups of people:

Vulnerability is one distinctive feature of people incapable to protect their moralities and wellbeing. Vulnerable groups comprise captive populations (detainees, established, students, etc.), mentally ill persons, and aged people, children, critically ill or dying, poor, with learning incapacities, sedated or insensible.
Their participation in research can be endorsed to their incapability to give an informed consent and to the need for their further safety and sensitivity from the research/researcher as they are in a greater risk of being betrayed, exposed or forced to participate.

Skills of the researcher:

Researchers should have the basic skills and familiarity for the specific study to be carried out and be conscious of the bounds of personal competence in research.
Any lack of knowledge in the area under research must be clearly specified.
Inexperienced researchers should work under qualified supervision that has to be revised by an ethics commission.

Advantages of Research Ethics:

Research ethics promote the aims of research.
It increases trust among the researcher and the respondent.
It is important to adhere to ethical principles in order to protect the dignity, rights and welfare of research participants.
Researchers can be held accountable and answerable for their actions.
Ethics promote social and moral values.
Promotes the ambitions of research, such as understanding, veracity, and dodging of error.
Ethical standards uphold the values that are vital to cooperative work, such as belief, answerability, mutual respect, and impartiality.
Ethical norms in research also aid to construct public upkeep for research. People are more likely to trust a research project if they can trust the worth and reliability of research.

Limitations of Research Ethics:

For subjects:

Possibilities to physical integrity, containing those linked with experimental drugs and dealings and with other involvements that will be used in the study (e.g. measures used to observe research participants, such as blood sampling, X-rays or lumbar punctures).
Psychological risks: for example, a questionnaire may perhaps signify a risk if it fears traumatic events or happenings that are especially traumatic.
Social, legal and economic risks: for example, if personal information collected during a study is unintentionally released, participants might face a threat of judgment and stigmatization.
Certain tribal or inhabitant groups may possibly suffer from discrimination or stigmatization, burdens because of research, typically if associates of those groups are recognized as having a greater-than-usual risk of devouring a specific disease.
The research may perhaps have an influence on the prevailing health system: for example, human and financial capitals dedicated to research may distract attention from other demanding health care necessities in the community.

How can we ensure ethics at different steps of research?

The following process helps to ensure ethics at different steps of research:

Collect the facts and talk over intellectual belongings openly
Outline the ethical matters
Detect the affected parties (stakeholders)
Ascertain the forfeits
Recognize the responsibilities (principles, rights, justice)
Contemplate your personality and truthfulness
Deliberate innovatively about possible actions
Respect privacy and confidentiality
Resolve on the appropriate ethical action and be willing to deal with divergent point of view.