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Rules of ethical conduct are embedded in every aspect of our life. Ethical considerations range from personal behavior, social conduct, in the workplace, the minute that we are necessitated to coexist with another human being…which is to say, all the time. They can be enforced by our own conscience and the rule of law. These are tenets of life that are bound, to a large extent, by common sense…but the complexity of human life deems them far more intricate than that.
Likewise, ethics is paramount in academic research for a variety of purposes, including scientific integrity and the need to maintain the integrity of participants. In line with the objective of specific disciplines, many overseeing organizations (such as the American Psychological Association) have set out a code of ethics of academic research. But there are some underlying considerations that everyone undertaking research must bear—even if it’s their first paper, even if they’ll never set foot inside a university ever again.
The specifics may or may not apply to you, but in a world dominated by “post-truth” ideals, the presence of this conversation must be continuously reiterated.
For the same reason that we live under the rule of law. For the same reason that doctors are required to take the Hippocratic oath.
Look, this shouldn’t even be a question. But let’s establish once and for all that ethics cannot be ignored.
Surely, you’ve already heard the tale of balancing between the thin line of “originality” and plagiarism. Now, always remember that no matter how revolutionary your work is, you are a part of a larger body of knowledge production. You may follow these rules of ethics for the very functional reasons of getting good grades or not being penalized by your university, but understand that this is much larger than yourself. Ethics of academic research are not a formality, but a very necessary component for good academic work.
A lot of social science research, such as case studies, ethnography, and interviews requires the cooperation of other human beings to make sure that your research is valid and relevant. While the pursuit of knowledge is a primary (and often intoxicating) goal, there are certain ethical norms that cannot be compromised. Here’s what you should remember if you have participants in your study.
Note: While we’re on the topic of consent, realize that there are further complications to consider regarding the use of animals in research. Bioethics is a highly intricate subdiscipline of ethics – in terms of legal, social, and ethical implications – so we’ve chosen to merely point out that such complications exist. This mostly pertains to medicine and biology-related fields, so we’ll leave it to the experts. For more info, you can start reading here.
Quantitative research primarily involves data analysis through statistics and is usually used within mathematics and the hard sciences. There are benefits to substantiating your work with stats: they are, understandably, deemed a more accurate form of measurement. There are several drawbacks to quantitative analysis as well – that also engender ethical concerns. It is important to note that this is part of a larger debate on how effective quantitative analysis is, as such, but keep these things in mind anyway, should this be your chosen path.
The cool thing is that there have been strides within research methodology to strive for a more holistic approach to quantitative analysis. You might want to check out the Bayesian inference for more info on that.
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