QRM - Session 3

Research Questions and Ethical Concerns

Course structure
1. Introduction, paradigms, and research methods
2. Designs and evaluation criteria
3. Research questions and ethical concerns
4. Paper project development
5. Interviews and transcriptions
6. Paper project development
7. Observation and field notes
8. Paper project development
9. Documents: Textual and visual
10. Paper project development
11. Analysis and reporting
12. Paper project development
13. Presentations I
14. Presentations II

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Ethical issues: Consent
>People can refuse to take surveys
>People can try and avoid leaving digital traces
>But people cannot always refuse to be part of data
collection during fieldwork
>Central questions: Should you collect their
consent? Should you inform them about your
actual purpose?

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Ethical issues: Covert research
> Covert research / deceptive approaches: Many
associations condemn such approaches
> And yet: Sociologist Richard Leo (1997) disguised his
liberal political and social views, instead feigning
conservative beliefs, to build trust with police and
thereby gain admission to interrogation rooms;
Festinger and colleagues (1956) infiltrated a
doomsday cult by lying about his profession and
pretending to believe in the cult’s prophecies;
Sociologist Humphreys (1970) pretended to be gay to
gather data for his dissertation on homosexual
encounters in public parks

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Open/Covert: An open debate
Should researchers inform participants in full,

or…

… should they use all opportunities to collect data?

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Situation
>You study non-verbal interactions between
drivers at a particular intersection
>How do you collect consent?
>How do you guarantee ethical standards?

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Ethical issues: Confidentiality
>Grant anonymity to participants
>Changes names of persons and places as long as
it does not harm contextuality
>Sometimes, participants wish to “own” their story
>Sometimes, anonymity is a matter of safety for
participants

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Ethical issues: Retributions
>“Why should we let you in?”
>“What do I get from it?”
>Data collection and incentives
>Vouchers for participation in surveys is frequent
>At the same time: How does this influence
answers and willingness to share?
>Try and avoid offering something valuable
>Offer to share your findings, or to administer an
instrument to diagnose something, etc.
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Case by case
>Research with children
>Research with vulnerable people
>Conflicts of interest
>Financial issues and funding
>Research that involves risk
>…

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Where to start?
>Huge differences between disciplines!!
>Go through the code(s) of ethics of your discipline’s
main association(s)
>Go through your institution’s procedures
(when do you need formal approval and what do you
need to do to get it?)
>Go through your association’s criteria and try and
make a case for your procedures and their
compliance
>If you are not sure about your complying: Look for
expert advice

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Codes of ethics, a selection
>Anthropology:
http://ethics.americananthro.org/category/statement/
>Sociology:
https://www.asanet.org/code-ethics
>Political science:
https://www.apsanet.org/portals/54/Files/Publications/A
PSAEthicsGuide2012.pdf
>Psychology:
https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/
>Management research:
https://aom.org/about-aom/governance/ethics/code-of-
ethics
>Economics:
https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/code-of-conduct
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This week’s reading
>What are your impressions?
>Why did the review committee ask they conduct
fieldwork in public or semi-public spaces?
>What is the central question raised by the
authors?
>(Why) does this question make sense?

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Applying the concepts
>Consent: Did they collect consent? Why?
>Covertness:
>How did they motivate their position in the community
they study?
>What did they do to blend in?
>What couldn’t they hide?
>Confidentiality: Was it granted to the people
studied?
>Retributions of any sort?
>Other dimensions you think are important to take
into account?
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Exercise
>Based on a real scenario from our textbook:
>You plan to conduct research on male prostitution.
>What ethical issues are you likely to encounter?
>How could you handle them?

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Ethical statement
>Any piece of research ends or starts with
statements such as: “The authors declare no
conflict of interest” or the like
>What you just did with the exercise is a detailed
ethical statement:
>Issues at stake
>How you plan to handle them

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Tomorrow
>See you online

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