Roundtable on Ethics in Research

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Roundtable on Ethics in Research

• Sharon Horne, Ph.D.
• Psychology Department
• American University Central Asia

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Exercise 1

• Form groups of 4-5 people
• Imagine you have been asked to take a survey or
  participate in an experiment
• Write down what would be important for you to
  know about the research
• How would you want to be treated as a research
  participant?

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General Principles

• These are aspirational goals to guide and inspire
  psychologists towards the highest ideals of the
  profession
• Beneficence and Nonmaleficence
• Fidelity and Responsibility
• Integrity
• Justice
• Respect for Peoples Rights and Dignity

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Beneficence and Nonmaleficence

• Strive to do no harm
• Safeguard the welfare and rights of those with
  whom they interact, including animal subjects
• When conflict occurs, trying to resolve it in a
  responsible fashion that minimizes harm
• Be alert to political, social, financial or
  organizational factors that might lead to a
  misuse of their influence

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Fidelity and Responsibility

• Establish relationships of trust with those with
  whom they work
• Clarify professional roles and obligations and
  accept appropriate responsibility for their
  behavior
• Are concerned about professional and scientific
  behavior of their colleagues
• Strive to contribute a portion of their time for
  little or no pay

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Integrity

• Promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in
  teaching, science and practice
• Do not steal, cheat, engage in fraud or
  misrepresentation
• Strive to keep promises and avoid unclear
  commitments
• Where deception is used, psychologists attempt to
  repair any mistrust or other harmful effects that
  might occur

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Justice

• Recognize that fairness and justice entitle all
  persons to access to and benefit from the
  contributions of psychology and equal quality in
  process, procedures and services
• Take precautions against potential biases
• Recognize boundaries of competence to avoid
  unjust practices

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Respect for Peoples Rights and Dignity

• Respect the dignity fo all people, rights to
  privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination
• Protect those whose vulnerabilities impair
  autonomous decision making
• Be award of cultural, individual and role
  differences based upon age, disability, religion,
  sexual orientation, language, nationality, race,
  and socioeconomic status
• Try to eliminate effects of biases based on those
  factors in their own work and the work of others

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Exercise 2

• Imagine that you are conducting a study in which
  you are collecting data on participants
• What procedures would you consider before
  initiating recruitment?
• What steps would you take to ensure
  confidentiality?

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Institutional Approval
• Provide accurate information and conduct research
  in accordance with approved protocol
• Informed Consent
• Inform about purpose of research, duration,
  procedures
• Right to decline or withdraw and consequences
• Risk, discomfort, adverse effects benefits
• Limits of confidentiality
• Incentives for participation
• Whom to contact with questions opportunity to
  ask

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Informed consent for recording voices and images
• Need prior consent unless research if
  naturalistic in a pubic place with little risk of
  harm or if includes deception it should be
  obtained in debriefing
• Client, Student, Subordinate Participants
• Protect from adverse consequences if they
  withdraw or decline participation
• Equitable alternative activities provided if it
  is a course requirement or extra credit

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research
• When risk of harm is low, confidentiality is
  protected, and involves the study of normal
  education practices, anonymous questionnaires,
  naturalistic observation or archival data, study
  of job/organizational effectiveness

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Offering inducements for research participation
• Avoid excessive or inappropriate financial or
  other inducements
• When offering services as inducement, clarify the
  nature of the services as well as the risks,
  obligations and limitations

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Deception in Research
• Only use deception if justified by the studys
  significant scientific, educational or applied
  value and when alternate procedures are not
  feasible
• No deception about research the is expected to
  cause physical pain or severe emotional distress
• Explain any deception as soon as possible, no
  later than at the conclusion of data collection
  and then permit withdrawal

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Debriefing
• Provide opportunity for participants to obtain
  information about the nature, results, and
  conclusions of research and correct any
  misconceptions
• Take steps to minimize harm if they are aware of
  harm due to research or the delaying of this
  information

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Humane Care and Use of Animals
• Psychologists act in accordance with federal,
  state and local laws and professional standards
• Supervise all procedures to ensure their comfort,
  health and humane treatment
• Train others using animals under ther supervision
• Minimize discomfort, infection, illness and pain
  of animals
• Only use procedures causing distress when
  alternate procedures are unavailable and when the
  goal is justified by scientific, educational or
  applied value
• Use anesthesia for surgical procedures
• Animals life should be terminated rapidly,
  minimize pain

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Reporting Research Results
• Do not fabricate data
• Take reasonable steps to correct any significant
  errors in publications
• Plagiarism
• Do not present portions of anothers work or data
  as though it is their own

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Publication Credit
• Take responsibility and credit only for work they
  have done or substantially contributed
• Principle authorship should reflect the
  scientific contribution of authors
• Students are typically the principle author on
  their dissertation research
• Duplicate Publication of Data
• Do not publish as original data, data that has
  been published - need acknowledgment

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APA Code of Ethics for Research and Publication

• Sharing Research Data for Verification
• Unless there are legal or proprietary
  restrictions, do not withhold data from
  verification, but need to protect the
  confidentiality of participants and can ask for
  costs of providing data
• Data requested can only be used for the purpose
  declared
• Reviewers
• Reviewers of research or proposals respect the
  confidentiality and proprietary rights in the
  information they review

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Institutional Review Board

• IRBs review and approve research proposals to
  assess if the research is in accordance with
  ethical principles and practices
• IRBs tend to include interdisciplinary
  researchers who provide notice of written
  approval or suggestions for future reviews
• The duration of approval is indicated - may be
  indefinite or a reapproval may be required
• IRBs will invite researchers to speak with them
  when they have questions or concerns
• Dates for submission of proposals, review and
  feedback are posted for researchers

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Common Components of University IRB Applications

• Title of research
• List of primary and secondary investigators and
  contact information
• Start and end dates of proposed research
• Scientific purpose of study
• Description of subject characteristics (if
  vulnerable population pregnant, cognitively
  impaired, students, prisoners, minors, medical
  conditions, etc)
• Study description

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Common Components of University IRB Applications

• Description of research methods (Instruments,
  participant recruitment and number of
  participants, advertisements, equipment to be
  sueddata collection and other procedures)
• Risks and benefits to participants
• Proposed compensation, withdrawal issues
• Language or cultural problems
• Psychological or medical referral information
• Copies of consent forms

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Consent forms

• Explanation of the purposes of the research and
  the expected duration, a description of the
  procedures, and identification of any
  experimental procedures
• Description of risks or discomforts
• Description of any benefits
• Disclosure of alternative procedures or courses
  of treatment
• Statement describing the extent, if any, to which
  confidentiality of records identifying the
  subject will be maintained

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Consent forms

• If there are risks, an explanation as to whether
  any compensation and an explanation as to whether
  any medical treatments are available if injury
  occurs and, if so, what they consist of, or where
  further information may be obtained
• Explanation of whom to contact for answers to
  pertinent questions about research and injury
• Statement that participation is voluntary,
  refusal to participate will involve no penalty or
  loss of benefits to which the subject is
  otherwise entitled, and the subject may
  discontinue participation at any time without
  penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject
  is otherwise entitled

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Consent forms

• Statement that information collected in this
  study will be kept confidential within the limits
  allowed by lawa statement that the university
  does not have any funds budgeted for compensation
  for injury, damages, or other expenses
• An explanation that for answers to questions
  regarding the research subjects rights, the
  Chair of the IRB Committee should be contacted at
  a specified phone number.

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Exercise 3

• Research Ethical Dilemma A participant
  participates in an interview for a study on
  sexual abuse. The participant decides to
  withdraw after you have conducted the analysis
  and are about to submit for publication.

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Exercise 4

• Research Ethical Dilemma You have published a
  paper with your graduate student. Although it
  was your idea and you collected the data and
  wrote the paper, he conducted the statistical
  analysis. He wants to be first author. What do
  you do?

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Exercise 5

• Research Dilemma You have collected data that
  contains sensitive information about subjects
  HIV status. What measures do you take when you
  want to store, transfer or subject this data to
  analyze it? What measures do you take if another
  investigator requests this data to verify your
  findings?