Chapter 5

Ethics in Research
 Research
Research ethics
ethics


Research ethics are moral principles that guide
researchers to conduct and report research
without deception or intention to harm the
participants of the study or members of the
society as a whole, whether knowingly or
unknowingly.

Practicing ethical guidelines while conducting
and reporting research is essential
to establish the validity of your research.
 Research
Research ethics
ethics


Ethical system designed to prevent
people from being used as scientific
guinea pigs

Contemporary emphasis on the ‘rights’
of people to take risks to save
themselves
 Ethical Issues


Voluntary Participation
 Ethical Issues


Voluntary Participation

Informed Consent
 Ethical Issues


Voluntary Participation

Informed Consent

Risk of Harm
 Ethical Issues


Voluntary Participation

Informed Consent

Risk of Harm

Anonymity
 Ethical Issues


Voluntary Participation

Informed Consent

Risk of Harm

Anonymity

Confidentiality
 Institutional Review Boards


Mechanism for reviewing
proposed research

Mechanism for protecting the
institution and researcher
Professional issues
¥ Scientific misconduct as specified and
regulated by professional organizations
and groups
¥ Peer Review process
A. Fraudulent activity
¥ Presentation or publication of forged,
falsified, or manipulated data
B. Research Publication Issues
¥ Plagiarism = present substantial
portions or elements of another's work
or data as their own
¥ Publication Credit = Authorship and
publication credit for only work
actually performed
¥ Partial Publication = publication of
several articles based on one large set
of data

¥ Dual Publication = publishing the same

data and results in more than one
journal or publication
C. Financial Conflict of Interest
¥ Fiducial interest of investigator
confounded with production of
research
Ethical Principles
¥Principle A:
In planning a study, the
investigator has responsibility to
make a careful evaluation of its
ethical acceptability.
¥Principle B:
Determine degree of risk to subject
(deception, stressful conditions, or
take medication).

¥Principle C:
Investigator always retains
responsibility for ethical practice.
¥Principle D:
Prior to conducting research, the
investigator must disclose obligations
and responsibilities of both subject
and investigator (influence willingness
to participate).

Not for: anonymous surveys or naturalistic

observation.
¥Principle E:
If deception is going to be used:
(1) determine if justified;
(2) identify alternatives to deception,
if any;
(3) ensure participants provided with
sufficient explanation as
immediate as possible.
¥Principle F:
Investigator respects individual's
freedom to decline at any time during
course of experiment.
¥Principle G:
Investigator protects participant from
physical and mental discomfort, harm,
and danger that may arise from
research procedures.
¥Principle H:
After collection of data, researcher
provides participant with information
about the nature of the study
(debriefing).
¥Principle I:
If research procedures result in
undesirable consequences for
individual participant, investigator
has responsibility to detect and
remove or correct these consequences
(long-term).
¥Principle J:
Information obtained about research
participant during the course of an
investigation is confidential unless
otherwise agreed upon in advance.
 Basic Research Misconduct
• Known as the three “cardinal sins” of
research conduct, falsification,
fabrication, and plagiarism (FFP)
are the primary concerns in avoiding
research misconduct.
• Any divergence from these norms
undermines the integrity of research
for that individual, lab,
university/corporation, and the field as
a whole.
 Basic Research Misconduct
Falsification
•Falsification is the changing or omission of
research results (data) to support claims,
hypotheses, other data, etc.
Fabrication
•Fabrication is the construction and/or
addition of data, observations, or
characterizations that never occurred in the
gathering of data or running of experiments.
•Fabrication can occur when “filling out” the
rest of experiment runs
 Basic Research Misconduct
Plagiarism
•Plagiarism is, perhaps, the most common
form of research misconduct.
•Researchers must be aware to cite all
sources and take careful notes.
•Using or representing the work of others as
your own work constitutes plagiarism, even
if committed unintentionally.
 Chapter 6
Primary and Secondary Sources

What are they?

 Primary sources

A primary source is an original
object or document; first-hand
information.

Primary source is material
written or produced in the time
period that you may be
investigating.

Primary sources enable the
researcher to get as close as
possible to what actually
happened during an historical
event or time period.
 Primary Source

Diaries and journals
– Example: Anne Frank was a teenager during
World War II. She kept a diary or journal the
years before she died in a concentration camp.
Her diary was later published as the “
Diary of Anne Frank”. This is a primary source.
– Example: Sarah Morgan was young woman
during the Civil War. She wrote in her diary or
journal what happened to her and her family
during the war. This is a primary document
because it was first hand. She wrote it at the
time it happened.
– Sarah Morgan Dawson: A Confederate Girl's Diar
y
 Primary Source

Autobiographies
– An autobiography is when you write a
story or book about yourself.
» Example: Nelson Mandela wrote
his autobiography about events in
his life called “Long Walk to
Freedom: The Autobiography of
Nelson Mandela. This is a primary
document because he wrote his
first hand experiences.
 Primary Source

Speeches are considered
Primary Sources.
– Examples of Speeches:
»Abraham Lincoln’s
“Gettysburg Address”
»Martin Luther King’s “I
Have a Dream”
»All of the President’s
Inauguration Speeches.
 Primary Source
• Historical documents such as the Declaration of
Independence or the Constitution are primary documents.
They were drafted and signed.
• Other Primary Sources would be
• Birth Certificates

• Government records

• Deeds

• Court documents

• Military records

• Tax records

• Census records

• Art
 Primary Source

Published first-hand accounts, or stories
are considered primary resources.
– Example: 2008 Presidential
candidate Senator John McCain
talked about his “own” experiences
as a Vietnam prisoner of war. It is a
primary source because he was
there, experienced the events and
shared it first hand.
– The television stations found footage
of Senator McCain at the time that
he was released. Those videos are
also considered primary sources
because it was filmed when it
occurred.
 Primary Source

Sound Recordings and interviews are
considered primary resources.
– Example 1: During the Great
Depression and World War II,
television had not been invented
yet. The people would often sit
around the radio to listen to
President Roosevelt’s war
messages. Those radio addresses
are considered “primary sources.”
– Example 2: During the 2008
election Barack Obama, had many
interviews that were televised.
Those interviews are considered
primary sources.
 Primary Source
• Photographs and videos are
primary sources.
▫ Example 1: Photographers
during World War II took
photographs of battles and/or
events during the war. Those
photographs are primary
sources. Those were taken
during actual events.
▫ Example 2: The same holds true
for videos or film created during
an event. A film was made
interviewing President Bush.
That film would be considered a
primary source.
 Primary Source
• Letters are considered
primary documents.
▫ Example: Soldiers during
wars wrote to their families
about war events they
experienced. Those letters
are considered primary
sources.
▫ See example of Civil War Lett
ers
 Secondary Source

Biography
– Example: A biography is
when you write about
another person’s life.
Alice Fleming wrote a
biography on the life of
Martin Luther King Jr.
This is a secondary
document. It was written
about him after he died.
 Primary or Secondary Sources?

Newspaper and Magazine articles can
be a primary or secondary sources.
– If the article was written at the time
something happened, then it is a
primary source.
– Example: The articles written on
Barack Obama’s inauguration in
2009 are primary sources.
– However, if a reporter in 2009
wrote about George Washington’s
inauguration using information
written by someone else (1789),
that would be a secondary source.
 What is a Secondary Source?
• A secondary source is
something written about a
primary source.
• Secondary sources are written "after
the fact" - that is, at a later date.
• Usually the author of a secondary
source will have studied the primary
sources of an historical period or event
and will then interpret the "evidence"
found in these sources.
• You can think of secondary sources as
second-hand information.
 Secondary Source
• Think about it like this….
• If I tell you something, I am
the primary source. If you
tell someone else what I
told you, you are the
secondary source.
• Secondary source materials
can be articles in
newspapers, magazines,
books or articles found that
evaluate or criticize
someone else's original
research
 Secondary Source

Almanacs, encyclopedias, history books
(textbooks), etc. are all secondary sources
because they were written “after” the these
events occurred.
 Sample Primary Source


https://archive.org/details/Japanese1943
 Why Use Primary Sources?
Advantages


Primary sources provide a window into the past—
unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social,
scientific and political thought and achievement
during the specific period under study, produced
by people who lived during that period

these unique, often profoundly personal,
documents and objects can give a very real
sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-
past era.
 Primary Source Disadvantages

Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of
view may challenge students’ assumptions.

Primary sources are often incomplete and have
little context. Students must use prior knowledge
and work with multiple primary sources to find
patterns

In analyzing primary sources, students move
from concrete observations and facts to
questioning and making inferences about the
materials.
 Why Use Secondary Sources?
Advantages

Secondary sources can provide analysis, synthesis,
interpretation, or evaluation of the original information.

Secondary sources are best for uncovering
background or historical information about a topic and
broadening your understanding of a topic by exposing
you to others’ perspectives, interpretations, and
conclusions

Allows the reader to get expert views of events and
often bring together multiple primary sources relevant
to the subject matter
 Secondary Source Disadvantages

Their reliability and validity are open to
question, and often they do not provide exact
information

They do not represent first hand knowledge
of a subject or event

There are countless books, journals,
magazine articles and web pages that
attempt to interpret the past and finding good
secondary sources can be an issue