ST3004: Research Methods Ethics and Writing your Proposal

Research Question Literature Review Research Design Data Collection Data Analysis Write Report Present

Ethics Research ethics relates to questions about how we formulate and clarify our research topic, design our research and gain access, collect data, process and store our data, analyse data and write up our research findings in a moral and responsible way. This means that you will have to ensure that the way you design your research is both methodologically sound and morally defensible to all those who are involved.

Does the end justify the means? Within business and management research, there are two dominant philosophical standpoints: deontology and teleology. The deontological view argues that the ends served by the research can never justify the use of research which is unethical. Consequently, if you adopted this view you would never use, for example, deception to obtain your research data, even if deception was necessary to ensure the data were valid and reliable.

Does the end justify the means? In contrast, the teleological view argues that the ends served by your research justify the means. Consequently, the benefits of your research findings would be weighed against the costs of acting unethically. This approach has an added complication as you also need to consider whether the benefits of the research are morally just.

General ethical considerations: privacy of possible and actual participants; voluntary nature of participation and the right to withdraw partially or completely from the process at any time; consent and possible deception of participants; maintenance of the confidentiality of data provided by individuals or identifiable participants and their anonymity; reactions of participants to the way in which you collect data, including embarrassment, stress, discomfort, pain and harm; effects on participants of the way in which you use, analyse and report your data, in particular the avoidance of embarrassment, stress, discomfort, pain and harm; behaviour and objectivity of you as researcher.

Ethics You should always think carefully about the access and ethical issues implied by your research design. The research design should not subject those you are researching (the research population) to embarrassment, harm or any other material disadvantage. Let’s have a look at some examples of ethical dilemmas that researchers may encounter…

Ethics’ Approval Application The School of Computer Science and Statistics has a formal Research Ethics Committee which oversees this issue: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Local/research_unit/ethics/ You have to submit a formal application for every research project. ©Nina Bresnihan, School of Computer Science & Statistics, TCD 2016

Research Ethics Application A Research Ethics Application consists of the following: A completed application form, signed by both you and your supervisor An Information Sheet for participants A Consent Form. If your study involves minors, then separate consent forms are required for the participant and the parent/guardian of the minor. Your Research Proposal A copy of the intended questionnaire/survey/interview protocol/screen shots/representative materials as appropriate. If your questionnaire or survey is online, you must provide the related URL.

Ethics Approval requirements Research Proposal Title of project Purpose of project including academic rationale Brief description of methods and measurements to be used Participants - recruitment methods, number, age, gender, exclusion/inclusion criteria, including statistical justification for numbers of participants Debriefing arrangements A clear concise statement of the ethical considerations raised by the project and how you intend to deal with them Cite any relevant legislation relevant to the project with the method of compliance e.g. Data Protection Act etc.

Information Sheet This sheet should inform participants of the following, as appropriate to the study:  The background context of the research explaining its relevance   The procedures relevant to the participant within this particular study Declarations of conflicts of interest The voluntary nature of participation: the right to withdraw and to omit individual responses without penalty The expected duration of the participant’s involvement Anticipated risks/benefits to the participant The provisions for debriefing after participation   Preservation of participant and third-party anonymity in analysis, publication and presentation of resulting data and findings Cautions about inadvertent discovery of illicit activities Provision for verifying direct quotations and their contextual appropriateness No audio or video recordings will be made available to anyone other than the research/research team, nor will any such recordings be replayed in any public forum or presentation of the research.   Of course, the information sheet for participants will vary with the study at hand. It should provide all information necessary for informed consent.

Research Planning – 6 weeks to go… Your data collection session will take place on Wed 14th March 10am-12pm. This week: Write down all your idea(s) for primary research Discuss with colleagues State the purpose and type of the study (what research question to you want to answer/explore and how are you going to do that?) Possible methods of investigation - Describe, discuss and justify the data collection methods and sampling used in research.