Ethical & Practical Issues in Research and Academic Work

Respect

One of the important qualities of a good project is to respect the people and their opinions that may form part of your project research. This is underlined by expectations from various bodies involved in monitoring higher education.

It is also expected by the society in which we live.

People who contribute their views to your project need to feel comfortable about what will happen to the information they give you, especially if your project is looking at an area which is confidential.

As a general rule all project data should be treated confidentially and should not be discussed with colleagues, or participants referred to by name or in a demeaning manner.

Respect also implies that you have taken the time to think through the project, to ensure you have good internal and external validity for the questions, and that the information you ask for will fulfill your project objectives.

Are you asking the right people the right questions?

It is disrespectful to waste people’s time with poorly planned project.

Risk

You need to consider your personal safety during the project and the safety of any other people involved in it. The ethical approval process is intended to help you identify risks to you and to others.

For example, would the project that you are carrying out:

• Endanger you by requiring data to be collected in unsafe places or by giving away personal data about yourself?
• Upset participants with project material that they may find distasteful or which may causes a violent reaction?
• Damage the participants’ job prospects by confidential data about them becoming known to others?
• Be reported and presented in a way that protects you and your participants from potential criminal or legal action?

Most risks can be minimized by taking sensible precautions.

For example, if you are meeting people who you do not already know, you should always do so in a public place and let your Supervisor or a friend knows who you are meeting, where you are and when you will return.

Is there is a risk to the participant in taking part in the project?

It is also not normal practice to post up a questionnaire on the Internet. One reason why this is not a good idea is the fact that you may not know who is replying to your questionnaire, or whether their responses are valid or reliable.

You as a researcher need to let those involved in your project understand what is expected of them. The responsibility for acceptable behaviour lies with you and not with others (EAU).

One should pay due consideration to the above points when undertaking research work.

If you have any concerns about ethical issues please discuss them with your supervisor.

Examples

Practical and ethical issues: Identify any practical difficulties you may have to overcome in working on your project and gathering information, and discuss any ethical issues involved in undertaking your research.

Here’s one example of how you could write the section of ‘Ethical and Practical Issues’ in research.

The probability of practical and ethical errors was considered and below are some of the issues that we might face during our research.

1. Biased Feedback. Participants of the in-depth interview being smartphone lovers and probably addicts might understate or exaggerate their responses. The possibility of biased responses would end up projecting a different picture for the interview which might be different from reality.

2. Dead Responses: Some responses from the participants in a large scale survey are non-coherent in nature and often too contradictory to be used in research. It effectively reduces the sample size for the study.

3. Managing data: Collecting survey responses from 100 plus respondents is a time consuming and tedious task. Analysing and efficiently interpreting the participant’s responses often take a lot of expertise and precision.

We don’t foresee any ethical issues pertaining to our study and shall take necessary steps and guidance to tackle them as and when they arise.