Ethics in Research
IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH
Resnick (2007), in his article “What is
Ethics in Research & Why is it
important?”
1. Ethics promotes the pursuit of
knowledge, truth, and credibility.
The important values include
trust, accountability, mutual
respect, and fairness.
2. Many of ethical norms ensure
that researchers are held
accountable to the public.
3. Adherence to the ethical
principle helps build public
support for research.
Ethical Codes and Policies for Research
1. HONESTY – this must be
maintained in all
communications. Data should
never be fabricated, falsified, or
misinterpreted.
2. OBJECTIVITY – biases should
be avoided in all aspects of
research.
3. INTEGRITY – promises, and
agreements should be kept and
all actions should be made with a
sincere purpose.
4. CARE – careless errors and
negligence should be avoided.
5. OPENNESS – the researcher
should be open to criticisms and
new ideas.
6. RESPECT FOR
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
– proper acknowledgment
should be given to all authors
cited and sources used in
research.
Patents and copyrights should be
recognized. Credits should be
given t where it is due.
7. CONFIDENTIALITY –
confidential communications or
documents should be protected.
8. RESPONSIBLE
PUBLICATION – the research
should be done with the purpose
of advancing research and
scholarship. Wasteful and
duplicate publication should be
avoided.
9. RESPONSBLE MENTORING –
the research should seek to
 educate, mentor and advise
students.
10. RESPECT COLLEAGUES –
All peers should be treated
fairly.
11. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY –
social good should be promoted
and social harm should be
avoided.
12. NON-DISCRIMINATION – all
those eligible to participate in
research should be allowed to do
so.
13. COMPETENCE – professional
competence and expertise should
be maintained and improved
with the research.
14. LEGALITY – a researcher
should know and obey relevant
laws, and institutional and
government policies.
15. HUMAN SUBJECT
PROTECTION – harms and
risks to human lives should be
minimized. Human dignity,
privacy, and autonomy should be
among the primary consideration
of the research,
RIGHTS OF RESEARCH
PARTICIPANTS
The main purpose of research is to
produce results that would benefit the
stakeholders in the study. Likewise, the
participants are the crucial elements of
the research, and they have the same
rights as the beneficiaries. Some of the
rights of research participants are as
follows (Trochim, 2006; Smith, 2003;
Polit, 2006)
1. VOLUNTARY
PARTICIPATION – any person
should not be coerced to
participate in the research
undertaking.
2. INFORMED CONSENT –
prospective research participants
must be fully informed about the
procedures and risks involved in
the research. Their consent to
participate must be secured.
3. RISK OF HARM - Participants
should be protected from
physical, financial, or
psychological harm. The
principle of non-maleficence
states that it is the researcher’s
duty to avoid, prevent, or
minimize harm to the
participants of the study.
4. CONFIDENTIALITY -
Participants must be assured that
their
identity and other personal
information will not be made
available to anyone who is not
directly involved in the study.
5. ANONYMITY - The
participants must remain
anonymous throughout the study
even to the researchers
themselves.
ETHICAL STANDARDS IN
RESEARCH WRITING
- For a writing to be considered
ethical, it
should be clear, accurate, fair
and
honest (Kolin, as cited by Roig,
2006)
- The following reminders must be
taken into consideration for
ethical
writing (Logan University,
2016):
 LEVEL 4: Failure to correctly
1. Findings should be reported with
paraphrase the portions of this used
complete honesty.
work.
2. International misinterpretation,
LEVEL 5: Lowest level; Incorrectly
misinformation and misleading
citing a certain source and copying
claims must be avoided.
heavily from it.
3. Appropriate credit should be
given using
other people’s work.
4. Plagiarism should be avoided by
fully
acknowledging all content
belonging to
others.

PLAGIARISM AND INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY

- Refers to the act of using another

person’s ideas, words, processes,
and results without giving due
credit.
- Refers to the use of ideas and
information created by other
people but without attribution to
them.
The Intellectual Property Code of the
Philippines of R.A 8293 contains
provisions regarding published works as
one’s own work.

There are different levels of plagiarism which

may vary from one institution to another. The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) in New Jersey recognizes five levels of
plagiarism.

LEVEL 1: The gravest level of

plagiarism (copying a full paper word
for word, w/o acknowledging the
source).
LEVEL 2: Lifting a large portion of a
research work (up to 50%) without
citing its source.
LEVEL 3: Copying specific portions of
another work
without citing it. (Sentence-Paragraph) SOME TIPS TO AVOID Plagiarism
Are to collect hard copies of all the
relevant references; read all the
references carefully and highlight
important areas; and place sufficient

attribution while using the ideas of

others.