Responsibilities as a Researcher

Counselors conducting research must plan, design, and report research in a way consistent with
ethical principles. They adhere to confidentiality and are bound to the same standards when
conducting individual research as they would be conducting for an institution. Counselors
safeguard the rights of research participants and take precautions to protect the welfare of all
participants. The responsibility for ethical practice lies with the principal researcher.

Potential Problems:

- Designing and carrying out research projects without careful consideration of ethical laws and
standards
- Failing to consider the same ethical standards when doing research independently
- Failing to remain aware of participant distress
- Lack of attention to the privacy and security of participants

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Never design or implement research without carefully reviewing it against the ACA Code of
Ethics
- Always place the welfare of participants first
- Avoid unnecessary disruptions in the lives of participants
- Protect participant confidentiality
- Submit research proposals to the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB)
- Accept full responsibility for all research conducted

Rights of Research Participants

People have the right to decline invitations to participate in research. When seeking consent,
counselors ensure that they accurately explain the purpose, talk about procedures, describe any
discomforts, describe any benefits, disclose alternative procedures, offer to answer inquiries,
describe limitations, describe the format, and allow participants to withdraw at any time.

Potential Problems:

- Eagerness to begin a study could impair informed consent

- Difficulty recruiting participants may lead researchers to pressure people

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Remember that informed consent is essential

- Do not hide any important parts of the research
- Clarify any potential limits to confidentiality

Student/Supervisee or Client Participation in Research

Researchers should make it clear to students that their participation does not in any way affect
their academic progress. Counselors must make informed consent clear to any participating
clients and avoid pressuring.

Potential Problems:

- Assuming that trainees must participate in research

- Underestimating power of a client
- Blending roles as researcher, supervisor, and counselor

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Be cautious about including students or clients in studies

- Recognize the relative power advantage
- Do not require trainees to serve as participants
- Remember that a client's participation will affect the counseling relationship

Research with Persons Not Capable of Giving Informed Consent

Information obtained through research is confidential. If a participant is not capable of giving

informed consent the counselor must obtain it from the legal caretaker.

Potential Problems:

- Working with children or other incapable of giving consent may make a counselor overlook
informed consent
- Being in a hurry can cause temptation to gloss over consent
- Being inattentive to a participant’s comprehension level

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Prepare a written informed consent document that includes limits to confidentiality

- Do not include a person incapable of giving consent without getting consent from the legal
caretaker
- Ensure that all information about participants is stored securely

Commitments to Research Participants and Others

Counselors honor all commitments to participants and clarify all process information to
participants. Counselors must inform sponsors about research outcomes and should transfer
research data safely to a records custodian.

Potential Problems:
- Forgetting that research data must be protected as confidential
- Being too eager to analyze and share research may skip steps of debriefing participants
- Failure to share information with sponsors
- Failure to designate a custodian for care of research data

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Be careful to honor all commitments to participants

- Protect research confidentiality
- Explain all predictable compromises to participants
- Properly store and dispose of data records
- Designate a colleague to care for information in case of emergency
- Provide a thorough debriefing to sponsors as soon as possible

Boundaries with Research Participants

Researchers must carefully honor relationship boundaries with participants and should not
engage in any sexual relationships or sexual harassment with participants.

Potential Problems:

- If a research setting is informal, it can be tempting to overlook the professional nature

- Ignoring the power differential in research relationships
- Disregarding the need for a rationale when extending relationship boundaries

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Avoid non professional relationships with participants

- Exercise the same judgment with boundaries as with clients
- Sexual relationships with participants are unethical
- Never engage in behavior that could be construed as harassment
- When tempted to extend professional boundaries, consider the benefits and harm to the
participant
- If a participant seems distressed, make an effort to fix any harm
- Seek collegial consultation

Reporting Research Results

Research results must be accurate and not misleading. Any unfavorable results or errors must be
reported. The identity of participants must be protected when reporting and studies must be
replicated.

Potential Problems:
- Pressure may push a counselor to fabricate data
- Embarrassment over results may tempt someone to cover up errors
- High competitiveness may cause the same issues

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Be clear and transparent in all research

- Clearly discuss the limitations of hypotheses and research
- Describe the application of results
- Never suppress information about the research
- Report any errors fond
- Maintain original research date for other to replicate
- Be careful to disguise the identity of participants

Publications and Presentations

Using participant information in case studies is only allowed when the participant has reviewed
the material and given permission or the information has been modified to protect the
participant's identity. Counselors do not plagiarize and must give recognition to any previous
work done by others. Potential Problems:

- Feeling pressure to publish and take credit for others' work

- Can be tempting to republish material without acknowledging others' previous work
- Carelessness and rushing can lead to failure to cite others' work
- Counselors too eager to use clients in their studies may fail to get permission and protect
confidentiality

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Be exacting in tracking any and all sources

- Any use of the ideas or work of another person requires credit
- When using case examples, get permission and protect confidentiality

Contributors to Research

Authorship can be a divisive issue; make sure all contributors get credit and agree to credit
given. Any research based on a student project should list the student first as the contributor.
Always make publication outlets (i.e. journal editors) aware of duplicate submissions.

Potential Problems:

- Failing to appreciate the potential for conflict in contribution credit

- Failing to address authorship issues in advance
- Refusing to be flexible and consider contributions of all involved
- Facing pressure to accrue publications and submitting to multiple journals without permission
- Training researchers and failing to give students credit in the publication

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- Remember that authorship issues are important to professionals

- Discuss all authorship issues at the beginning
- Remain flexible to authorship issues
- List a student first when crediting contributors
- When a student makes a minor contribution acknowledge it in a footnote
- Seek consultation in authorship conflicts
- Never submit a manuscript to multiple journals at the same time
- Publishing the same article in more than one journal is unethical unless the publication outlet is
aware of the overlap and has approved it

Professional Review

Counselors reviewing material for others respect the confidentiality and rights of the submitter
and ensure that the submission is valid and defensible.

Potential Problems:

- Temptation to discuss an interesting article submission with others

- Strong feelings about the author of the submission
- Well-reputed counselors may receive many studies to review and need to manage their time
properly

Recommendations and Resolutions:

- When reviewing manuscripts give them confidentiality

- Clearly give your credentials
- Politely refuse to review for authors with whom you have a personal or conflictive relationship
- If you cannot complete a review in the allotted timeframe, be up front about it
- Avoid allowing professional biases to affect a review