Research Ethics

Ethics is becoming an increasingly important issue for all researchers and the aim of this session is to demonstrate the practical value of thinking seriously and systematically about what constitutes ethical conduct in social science research. The session will involve a lecture component and some small-group work.

Aims:
To allow students to distinguish between values, moral and ethical issues, encourage students to think about problems and dilemmas in conducting research, help students to gain an overview of ethical relationships, enable students to know when to ask for help, and prepare students in terms of defence of possible criticisms of their own research.

Topics:

• What do we mean by ethics?
• National and international policy frameworks
• Ethics and risk
• Ethics across disciplinary boundaries
• Dealing with ethical dilemmas
• The processes of applying for ethics approval within the University of Cambridge

• University Students from Tier 1 Departments
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here

Participants are required to locate, download and read the ‘Ethical Code’ or set of ‘Guidelines’ which most apply to their academic discipline. Please bring this Code or set of guidelines to the workshop, along with any critical observations. There are some examples of codes and guidelines below. For a summary, and as a resource, see: https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/curec/resources/associations-guidance/

Number of sessions: 1

• Israel,M. & Hay, I. (2006) Research Ethics for Social Scientiests. London:Sage
• Haggerty, K.(2004) 'Ethics creep: governing social science research in the name of ethics'. Qualitative Sociology, 27, pp391-414
• Mertens, D. and Ginsberg, P. (2009) The Handbook of Social Research Ethics. Cal. Thousand Hills: Sage

Weblinks:

• Framework for Research Ethics (ESRC): http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx
• Social Research Association: http://the-sra.org.uk/sra_resources/research-ethics/ethics-guidelines/
• The Ethics of Social Research: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/34088_Chapter4.pdf
• Government Social Research: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ethics_participants_tcm6-5783.pdf
• Social Policy Association: http://www.social-policy.org.uk/downloads/SPA_code_ethics_jan09.pdf
• British Society of Criminology: Statement of Ethics 2015: http://www.britsoccrim.org/new/?q=node/22
• Research Ethics Guidance from Professional Associations: https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/curec/resources/associations-guidance/

This module is not assessed.

Click the "Booking" panel on the left-hand sidebar (on a phone, this will be via a link called Booking/Availability near the top of the page).

This module runs twice a year - once in Michaelmas Term; once in Lent Term.