Role of Ethics in Research

Role of Ethics in Research
As far as ethics are concerned, it is often perceived as rules or norms that differentiate
between wrong and right. There are several rules that give testimony to this fact such as the
Golden Rule ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, or it can also be a
professional code of conduct such as the ‘Hippocratic Oath; first of all, do no harm’ or it
could also be a religious doctrine such as the ‘Ten Commandments’ or wise sayings like
those of the Buddha. This is largely the way through which ethics have been defined as
standards of conduct that differentiate between behavior that is acceptable and unacceptable.
Ethics are usually imbibed either at home or at educational institutions or in any other social
setup. While a large number of people acquire their sense of what is right and wrong during
the course of their childhood, ethical development is known to take place throughout life as
individuals pass through various stages of their life. Ethics are so pervasive that individuals
might even deem it as common sense. On the other hand, if ethics are the same as common
sense, we would not be hearing about the many ethical issues that occur in society.
Ethics are of particular significance in research and are considered as a key component. It is
essential for a researcher to ensure that his or her aim is to provide original information, truth
and avoid any errors. In addition, being ethical enables authors to adopt a collaborative
approach for their research with due support from their mentors, guides and peers. For this,
researchers need to have values such as fairness, trust and mutual respect amongst all those
who are involved in their research. This usually hinges on safeguarding the intellectual
property rights of each and every contributor which is established by keeping ethical
considerations in mind. In addition to these, researchers need to be ethical by being
accountable to general public by safeguarding animal or human subjects who will be a part of
the research.
With this article, our objective is to emphasize the significance of ethics especially in
research and we provide ethical pointers that you need to keep in mind while conducting a
research.
Planning a Research:Your research should be planned such that it does not provide any
results that are misleading. You should ascertain that all due ethical procedures are followed
during your research.
Data Validity: When you collect information / responses from the participants in your
research you need to refrain from malpractices such as fabricating the information to make
your results more valid. All disciplinary norms should also be followed when gathering data.
Safeguarding Subjects: While executing your research you should ensure that the subjects
in your research (humans or animals) are not harmed in any way. You should also ensure that
your research subjects do not experience any discomfort out of their inclusion in the research
process. All human subjects should be intimated in advance about any inherent risks that the
research might involve.
Confidentiality and Privacy: As a researcher, you are ethically obligated to ensure that you
maintain the confidentiality in the responses that you gather from your respondents. You
should also ensure that you maintain privacy with regards to any personal information that
has been shared by your respondents.
Do Not Plagiarize: This is of utmost significance from an ethical perspective. You should
refrain from passing of someone else’s work as your own.
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.
Promotes Collaborative Work: 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. Most researchers want to receive credit for their
contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely.
Accountability: Many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be
held accountable to the public. For instance, federal policies on research misconduct,
conflicts of interest, the human subjects protections, 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.
Public Support: Fourth, 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.
Promotes Moral and Social Values: 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.
Ethics in research have severe implications as being ethical can improve your research and be
beneficial for academia or society on the whole. On the contrary, being unethical can have
major repercussions from your research point of view.

Role of Ethics in Research

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