Mary E. Brown, Ph.D., Professor
Information Science

Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515

Department of Information and Library Science
Fax: 1.203.392-5780 / Phone: 1.203.392-5781
Toll Free: 1-888-500-SCSU, then press 4

Unit V:
Ethics of Research

ETHICAL CRITERIA for Researchers

1. All those participating in a research study (or their legal gardians) have a right to be informed, consulted, and advised about the object of the inquiry and as to any potential risk from participation.
2. Research should not proceed unless permission has been obtained from all necessary parties, including the Institutional Review Board (IRB).
3. All documentary evidence, such as files, correspondence and such, should not be examined without official permission.
4. Copyright law should always be strictly observed.
5. The researcher is responsible for the confidentiality of the data, including identity of participants.
6. Researchers are obliged to keep efficient records of the project and make summaries available to participants and authorities on demand.
7. The researcher will be accountable to the reasearch community and the public for the impact of the project.
8. The researcher is accountable to report the progress of the project at periodic intervals.
9. This criteria will also help to satisfy the need for ongoing formative evaluation to determine new lines of interest and problem redefinition.
10. Research should never be undertaken which can cause physical or mental harm to any of the subjects concerned.
11. Administering drugs to unknowing participants whould count as an extreme example of such a violation.
12. The researcher has a right to report the project fairly.
13. The researcher must make the ethical contractual criteria known to all involved.
14. Researchers have a right to have their name on any publication resulting from the project. This will help answer the delicate ethical question of "Who gets credit for publications?" That is, whose name will appear on the article or report?

REFERENCES:
Adapted from McKernan, James. (1991). Curriculum action research: A handbook of methods and resources for the reflective practitioner, pp.249-250. New York: St. Martin's Press.

"Ethical considerations always accompany scientific inquiry when it is applied to human research participants....Ethical dilemmas that arise in human...research should be faced directly anbd responsibly: [Researchers] are rightly held to account for the ethical adequacy of their decisions in the light of the competing values and ethical considerations that are involved." [Quoted material is taken from the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants.]

"Moral principles of civilized peoples and nations have for centuries contained general prohibitions against harmful experimentation on human beings." Yet, during the Nuremberg Trials after World War II there was testimony that "human beings in Auschwitz and elsewhere were put through agonizing and maiming experiments (and eventually killed) while under the control of physicians who claimed to be doing medical research." Out of this, and to prevent a recurrence, a codification of guidelines for research on human subjects was issued in 1947 in the Nuremberg Code. The Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Assembly followed in 1964, containing specific guidelines for physicians doing research on humans. In the United States, the 1972 Freedom of Information Act opened up certain government files and the public learned about the Tuskegee Study of 1932 in which the symptoms of untreated black males (who were lead to believe they were being treated) were recorded at periodic physical exams and autopsies were performed after their deaths. Another famous U.S. case was the Milgram study in 1963. By 1973 the American Psychological Association published it Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants, the Society of Reserach in Child Development issued a statement of "Ethical Standards to Research with Children," and the President of the American Educational Research Association wrote a strong editorial in the February 1973 issue of Educational Researcher calling researchers' attention to the need for ethical guidelines. Today, federal and local regulations apply to those conducting research involving human subjects. [Quoted and historical material is taken from Mauch & Birch's Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation.]

Universities may have a designated Human Subjects Review Committee or an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that reviews and authorizes faculty, researchers, and students to conduct their porposed research (or impose modifications or restrictions, or deny approval for proposed research). The university may provide a form or guidesline for submission of requests as well as a schedule of deadlines for applying for approval. Southern's IRB is currently chaired by Dr. Frank Sansone. Southern's Human Research Protection Program and the IRB Newsletters are housed on the Graduate School's Website. The Human Research Protection Program explanation and IRB Newsletters are your primary resource for information on conducting research at Southern.

Each student in ILS is to read carefully all materials on Protecting Human Subjects by completing the training module now housed on the National Cancer Institute website. (This training module was previously housed on the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s website for extramural researchers, Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams.) After passing the training module, print the certificate of completion. A copy of this certificate is also required to be filed with all IRB forms prior to obtaining permission to begin research.

Boards of Education may have similar designated committees. While you would need to obtain the permission of the building principal to conduct research with teachers or students, the building principal's permission is not sufficient approval: You must recieve written permission from either the Board of Education or the Superintentent.

Children (individuals under legal age) and certain other groups (such as mentally disabled individuals) need to have a legal guardian give consent for them to participate in research.

A standard informed consent form contains the following elements:

• Title of the study
• Names, titles, and contact information of the investigator(s)
• Statement of authority, such as: The following informed consent is required by Southern Connecticut State University for any person involved in a University-sponsored research study. This study has been approved by the University's Institutional Review Panel for Human Subjects.
• Statment of consent, such as: I hereby give my consent [for my child _________] to be the subject of your research. You have given me:
  • A.An explanation of the procedures to be followed in the project, including an identification of those that are experimental.
  • B.Answers to inquiries I have made.
  I understand that: My [child's] participation is voluntary, and I [he/she] may withdraw my consent and discontinue participation in the project at any time. My [Their] refusal to participate will not result in any penalty.
• Signature and date
• Optional contact information

The purpose of the IRB is to review the proposed research for the advantages versus disadvantages of the research. If you do not have access to an IRB, seek another ethical person, such as a religious leader, as a reviewer of the proposed research.

Conduct initial/test and pilot/full studies [after receiving instructor's okay].

• The purpose an initial or test run of proposed research is to find any flaws in the research instrument's design or wording, to get a run time so you can tell prospective participants how long the study should take to complete, and to gather sample data for analysis (so you can see if your method of collecting it serves the analysis process). For the initial or test run you will use 2-3 friends, family, classmates. The data is not useable for reporting findings.
• The purpose a pilot study is to further refine the research instrument's design or wording and the data analysis process. The pilot should use less than 25 participants from the population you wish to sample with the research. This should be a mini-run of the full experiment (including permissions, informed consent, etc.). The data collected may be able to be reported as findings.
• The best case scenerio is that the planned study needs no modification; the worst is that you start re-planning almost from scratch.

Journal Entry

Write a narrative describing, your current feelings toward this mode of instruction, and any problems or successes you have had since the fourth week's journal entry. Be sure to mark the entry with the title "REFLECTIONS FROM THE MIDDLE - date". Post journal entry in appropriate thread.