The Individual Researcher
Ethic begins and ends with you, the researcher. A research’s personal moral code is the strongest defense against unethical behavior. Before during, and after conducting a study, a researcher has a opportunities to, and should, reflect on research actions and consult his or her conscience. Ethical research depends on the integrity of the individual researcher and his or her values. “If values are to be taken seriously, they cannot be expressed and laid aside but it must instead be guides to action for the sociologist. They determine who will be investigated, for what purpose and in whose service” (Sagarin, 1973:63).
Why Be Ethical?
Given that most people who conduct social research are genuinely concerned about others, why would a researcher act in an ethically irresponsible manner? Outside of the rare disturbed individual, most unethical behavior result from pressures on researcher to take ethical shortcuts. Researchers face pressure to build a career, publish, advance knowledge, gain prestige, impress family and friends, hold on to a job, and so forth ethical research takes longer to complete, costs more money, is more complicated, and is more likely to be terminate before completion. Moreover, written ethical standard are in the form of vague principles. There are many places where it is possible to act unethically, and the odds of getting caught are small.
There are few reward available for ethical research. The unethical researcher, if caught, faces public humiliation, a ruined career, and possible legal action, but the ethical researcher wins no praise. Ethical behavior arises from sensitivity to ethical concerns that researchers internalize during their professional training, from a professional role, and from personal contract with other researcher. Moreover, the norms of the scientific community reinforce ethical behavior with an emphasis on honesty and openness. Researcher who are oriented toward their professional role, who are committed to the scientific ethos, and who interact regularly with other researcher are likely to act ethically.
Scientific Misconduct. The research community and government agencies that fund research oppose unethical behavior called scientific misconduct, which includes research fraud and plagiarism. Scientific misconduct occurs when a researcher falsifies or distorts the data or the method of data collection, or plagiarizes the work of others. It also includes significant departure from the generally accepted practices of the scientific community for doing or reporting on research. Research institutes and universities have policies and procedures to detect misconduct, report it to the scientific community and funding agencies, and penalize researcher who engage in it (e.g., through a pay cut or loss of job).2
Research fraud occurs when a researcher fakes or invents data that were not really collected, or falsely reports how to research was conducted. Though rare, it is treaded very seriously. The most famous case of fraud was the scandal of Sir Cyril Burt, the father of British educational psychology. Burt died in 1971 as an esteemed researcher who was famous for his studies with twins that showed a genetic basis of intelligence. In 1976, it was discovered that he had falsified data and the names of coauthors. Unfortunately, the scientific community had been misled for nearly 30 years.
Plagiarism is fraud that occurs when the researcher steals the idea or writing for another or use them without citing the source. A special type of plagiarism is stealing the work of another researcher, an assistant, or student, and misrepresenting it as one’s own. These are serious breaches of ethical standards, but they do sometime occur.3
Unethical but Legal. Behavior may be unethical but not break the law. The distinction between legal and ethical behavior is illustrated in the plagiarism case. The American Sociological Association documented that a 1988 book without footnotes by a dean from Eastern New Mexico University contained of 1978 dissertation written by a sociology professor at Tufts University. The copying was not illegal; it did not violate copyright law because the sociologist’s dissertation did not have a copyright filed with the U.S. government. Nevertheless, it was clearly unethical according to standard of professional behavior (see Figure 17.1 for relations between legal and moral actions).4
Power
The relationship between the researcher and subjects or employee – assistant involves power and trust. The experimenter, survey director, or research investigator has power relative to subject or assistants. The power is legitimated by credentials, expertise, training, and the role of science in modern society. Some ethical issues involve an abuse of power and trust.
The researcher’s authority to conduct research, granted by professional communities and the larger society, is accompanied by a responsibility to guide, protect, and oversee the interests of the people being studied. For example, a physician was discovered to have conducted experimental gynecological surgery on 33 women without their permission. The women hand trusted the doctor, but he has abused the trust that the women, the professional community, and society placed in him.5
The researcher seeking ethical guidance is not alone. He or she can turn to a number of resources: professional colleagues, ethical advisory committees, institutional review boards or human subjects committees at a college or institution, codes of ethics from professional associations, and writings on ethics in research.