Research Ethics

Research Ethics: A Critique

The term research ethics spans across a variety of disciplines ranging from Science, Law and even Academic study, "Research Ethics: A Critique" delves into historical events which lead to the revaluation of research ethics in fields such as science before questioning the ethics within academic internet research.

For the sake of this paper the three historical events will involve "The Nuremberg war crimes", "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" and "Project MKULTRA" (below you will find a brief overview of the events).

The Nuremberg war crimes, where Nazi scientists carried out various experiments on the prisoners detained during World War 2. Secondly the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, during the 1930's - 1970's approximately 399 black lower working class males were used to see the effects of syphilis and develop studies on the history of syphilis rather than having the effective treatment (Brunner, 2006). Finally Project MKULTRA this US Government sanctioned experiment during the 1950's were seen as the first stages of the CIA's mind control program, during the experiment drugs where extensively used along with electric impulses to try and alter brain wave activities.

Each of these respectively have change the way research is carried out today, each of the above historical events have all changed the mind state of people across the world until now, the victims of cancer and AIDS have turned around and demanded they be used as guinea pigs in order to find a cure (Trochim, 2006) what caused uproar over 50 years ago as unacceptable has now become the talking point for the exact opposite reasons.

The aforementioned changes to research ethics include:

1. Voluntary Participation

2. Informed Consent

3. Risk Of Harm

4. Confidentiality

5. Anonymity

These 5 criteria where developed for close contact human experiments but now with the development of technology and the introduction of the internet these have become transferable rules. The internet has now become a haven of researcher's conducting experiments from fields such as psychology, sociology and anthropology (Suler, 2000).

Informed consent and confidentiality will be the two areas to be discussed in more detail:::::::

1. Informed Consent from the Subjects and Responsible Authorities

-- Is the person or group aware of the research being done and what will happen with the research findings?

-- Were they notified of the research study before, during, or after data collection?

-- Was explicit permission obtained from the person or group for the researcher to conduct the study and write about the findings?

-- Has the researcher informed participants about issues regarding the confidentiality of the channel being used to communicate with them, and about the confidentiality of any records kept by the researcher or by the subjects?

-- Are the people who own or operate the group or its channel aware of the purpose of the research. Have they given their consent?

-- Has the person or group been debriefed after the study is complete? Have they seen and given feedback on the written research report?

-- Is permission (informed consent) obtained for the use of quotes or for describing specific people?

-- Are the respondents adults or minors? How can their age be verified? Was informed consent obtained from legal guardians?

-- Did the researcher himself create the group for the purpose of gathering data? If so, was informed consent obtained?

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