Basic Principles

               Respect for Persons

For research to be considered ethical participants must be able to exercise their ability to choose, inside the study and whether or not to participate. There must be no coercion over the participants, what responses they give and they must have the choice to not be a part of the study or withdraw from it at any time without consequences.

In order to have full autonomy, all research must be voluntary and the subject must be aware that they will not be penalized for not participating. This includes researchers not having undue influence over participants, such as being their employer, professor or otherwise in a position that would make them feel pressured to consent to research.

Further, there must be an informed consent that prospective subjects sign and affirm, and outlines all parameters of the study. This includes what the subject will be required to do, any potential risks of harm, the purpose of the research and affirms their participation is voluntary and they may withdraw at any time. This informed consent must be presented to them in a way that is comprehensible and easy to understand, and potential risks and essential information needs to be presented at the beginning of the document, not hidden inside it. The informed consent must be signed and retained.

Finally, a participant must be mentally competent to make the decision to participate. Individuals with decreased autonomy include adults with cognitive difficulties and children. In the event of adults with diminished cognitive ability, unless the research is aimed to address these topics, it is discouraged to involve such individuals in studies. In the event of children, both the parent’s consent and the child’s assent is necessary.

 

               Beneficence

Social science research is ethical when it “minimizes risks and maximizes benefits.” In short, it must be “ensuring that risks are reasonable in relationship to anticipated benefits.” While biomedical research frequently faces this key principle more often, social science does have considerations to “do no harm” in its own research.

Research conducted must in no way propose any unnecessary potential to harm or distress subjects and in all such scenarios the subject must be informed of this risk before participating. However, the more pertinent risk in social science research is the privacy of subjects, especially in studies that involve information that may be confidential for the subject.  Things such as sexuality, economic status, participation in illegal activities or traumatic events may be information that could discredit or damage the reputation of participants if leaked.

Studies involving such information should therefore take all due diligence to assure the information cannot be traced back to the subjects, which may require removal of the name of the subject of the assigning of a pseudonym. Oftentimes however this will require additional measures to assure the existing information recorded in the study cannot be used to re-identify the subject by third parties.

Research may involve deception if it does not place the subject in danger and is necessary for the study. At the end of the experiment, the subject is to be read into the deception and the reason for it.

 

               Justice

In order to be ethical, social science research must not be biased in selecting its participants, especially when risks or benefits are involved. Examples of violations would be choosing poor or uneducated populations for risky social experiments to reduce a risk of lawsuits, or choosing populations that the researcher associates with to receive a new, possibly beneficial therapy modality or participants they associate with to be a part of a paid study. Further subjects must not be selected on a method of convenience, such as prisoners, professors choosing their students and choosing participants immediately within the researcher’s personal network.

The underpinning idea of justice is that there is equality in the groups who share the benefits and burdens of research and there is no bias in directing these to any one group.