Transcript
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HELEN KARA
Hello. I want to pose a question today. And the question is, why is research ethics important? We hear a lot about research ethics. People talk a lot about it, but nobody ever seems to stop to ask, why is it so important? So that’s what I want to think about and talk about with you today.
Ethics can be very instrumental, very much a means to an end for researchers to get their ethics application approved. And then they’ll say ‘I’ve done ethics’, and they’ll crack on and do their research without ever thinking about ethics again. But this, to me, isn’t real research ethics. And in my view, real research ethics is essential.
So let me explain what I think real research ethics is. It’s not about filling in a form. It’s not about getting a stamp of approval from a committee of other people. It’s not about ethical theories that people talk about with very long words like ‘deontology’ and ‘consequentialism.’ What research ethics is really about, in my view – and actually, this is based on worldwide research done by the Trust Project, so it’s not just my view – research ethics is about respect, honesty, fairness, and care.
The Trust Project was an EU-funded project that was run from the University of Central Lancashire here in the UK, and they asked people in different parts of the world what matters to you in research ethics. And these four points came up again and again and again. People said we want respect, honesty, fairness, and care, and not just here and there, but all the way through the research project and even beyond into aftercare, because a significant amount of research around the world has been conducted unethically and is being conducted unethically today.
It’s not a problem of the past. It’s often taught as though it’s a problem of the past, but actually, it’s a problem of the present. There is unethical research practice happening in many parts of the world. I wish that was not a real thing, but it is. Having said that, it’s also the case that a lot of research is conducted very ethically, and whether directly or indirectly, sets out to create benefit. Research is often done to try to improve things – to find treatments for diseases, to find ways to help people who don’t have clean water to get clean water, to find answers to problems that we have in the world like the climate crisis.
And that, of course, is ethical in itself. And then if that research is also conducted with respect, honesty, fairness, and care, that is truly ethical research. So, for me, research ethics is about making sure that this happens at all levels all the way through the research process. Of course, some of the four aspects are more relevant at particular stages in research. For example, when you’re designing a research project, you need to use more care to design that as carefully as you can.
And then when you’re working with other people in the course of your research – if you’re collecting primary data, you might be working with participants, gatekeepers, and so on – then respect is very important in the way that you interact with those people. But overall, if we, as much as we can, practise respect, honesty, fairness, and care throughout the process of conducting research, then our research will be ethical.
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