Ethical issues in conducting Research

Meaning, components and importance of research ethics

Chapter outline
• Define ethics and research ethics
• Demonstrate ethical Issues and practices in research
• Discuss the importance of ethical issues in research
Meaning ore ethics and research ethics
• Ethics: are principles and guidelines that help us to maintain the
things that are valued in our societies.
• Researh ethics :moral guidelines, regulations, conducts or standards
that should be followed in designing, conducting, and reporting
research findings.
• A set of principles about how researchers and research organisations
should conduct themselves when dealing with research participants,
other researchers , users of their research and society in general
Overall research code of conduct
• To Minimise Harm ( Principle of Non-malificence)
• Resecher to avoid, prevent or minimise harm to others.
• Research participants not to be subjected to any unnecessary risks of harm
• Participation of the participants in research to be essential only in
achieving scientifically and socially important aims that cannot be
achieved without the participation of human participants.
• II: To Maximise Benefit (Principle of Beneficence):
• Researchers should maximise benefits in research.
• Researchers should ensure that the intention of research is to
generate/adance new knowledge that will produce benefits for participants
and society as a whole,
Research ethical issues before data collection
• Researcher should obtain research permit or clearance from an
appropriate and recognised authorities (Smith 2003).
• The permit stipulates the research rationale, duration, limitations
and the scope, including the geographical area (s) to be covered by
the survey.
• In Tanzania research permit are obtained from the Tanzanian
Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), goverment
ministries departments including higher learning institutions
• Possession of research qualifications: is vital for any individual
intending to conduct research
Ethics at Research design & sampling
• Research design to ensure that physical, psychological or social harm
for participants are minimised.
• Sample: ensure that the sample size is justified to provide valid and
generalisable results.
• Justification for small samples be given e.g. in qualitative studies
• Data collection: Care must be taken to ensure that data collection
methods and procedures are in line with research design, objectives,
question(s) etc.
Research issues at data collection
• Researcher should obtain an informed consent of the subjects which
means. It is presented to participants in a form of a letter stipulating
• (1) a research purpose, (2) any potential risks or discomforts, (3)
description of potential benefits, (4) description of confidentiality and
procedures for achieving it
• (5) list of names that participants can contact if they have any
questions, and (6) a statement that participation is voluntary and that
a participant may freely withdraw from the research at any time.
Sample informed consent letter
Ref: Rural-urban migration and Resilience of the Maasai Nomadic Pastoralist youth in
Tanzania (Cases in Ngorongoro District, Arusha and Dar es Salaam City)

Dear…………………………………………………………..

I am Emmanuel J. Munishi, a PhD student in Development Studies at the Department of

Physical Geography (IPG), Freiburg University in Germany. I am also a lecturer at the College
of Business Education, Dar es Salaam Campus, Tanzania.

As a requirement of my PhD studies, I am undertaking a research project leading to a thesis,

aiming to understand the impact of the rural-urban migration of Maasai migrant youth on
the migrants’ and local households’ resilience, taking Ngorongoro district and Dar es Salaam
city in Tanzania as case studies.

The ultimate goal is to recommend ways of strengthening both migrants’ and households’
capacities to cope with their various migration-related threats encountered to ensure better
livelihoods among them.

With this information, I am glad to invite you to freely participate in the study by sharing
your insights, practices, experiences and observations about this topic

You are free to offer any responses, given that the discussion does not regard any point as
false or correct. You are also free to withdraw from discussion at any stage without any
question. Your contributions will be handled with maximum care and will not be used for
any reasons other than my academic report. You will not be able to be identified in my
report. I will strictly protect the confidentiality of the information you provide.

If you wish, you will receive a copy of my work upon the completion of research report
writing. I am thankful in advance for your great support in helping me to accomplish my
academic task, which is at the same time important for the Maasai people and the whole
nation of Tanzania.

If you have any questions concerning this undertaking, please feel free to contact the
following people:

1. My supervisor, Prof. Dr Axel Drescher Axel.Drescher@geographie.unifreiburg

2. My employer CBE Dar es Salaam via principalbel@cbe.com
3. Emmanuel J. Munishi via ekemu@yahoo.co.uk:

Thank you
Ethical issues during data collection cont.

• Avoid multiple roles: Researchers should be aware of certain multiple

roles during research assignment; that could reasonably impair their
professional performance or could exploit or harm research subjects
(APA, 2014).
• Issues of power relations or differences: Researchers are advised not
to misuse the power difference existing between them and researhc
subjects
• e.g. Professors forcibly using students as research subjects or local
government officials forcibly engaging individuals in research.
Ethical issues at data analysis & report writing
• Over-reporting or underreporting the findings: Researchers should
not: overgneralis, include or omit some data due to some personal
and unjustifiable reasons.
• Confidentiality [privacy] researcher should mantain confidentiality of
their subjects by not making some senstive information public or
associate information with individuals (Flicker 2004).
• Fabrication of data: Researchers are not allowed to fabricate (cook)
data and they are supposed to avoid any false or misleading
statements in presenting their data. (APA, 200)
Ethical issues at data analysis and report
• Plagiarism: This is known as an academic theft, taking someone’s
academic work or ideas without proper acknowledgement or citation.
It contravenes the Intellectual property rights law (Flicker 2004)
• Authorship of the research report and publication: researchers should
claim authorship credit only for the work they have actually
performed or significantly contributed (Smith 2003; Koocher 1998).
Importance of research ethics
• Research ethical considerations shows respect for participants and prevent
harm to the research participants.
• It ensures respect to other researchers, including those acknowledged in
the research report and those ones who will read the report.
• Prevents conflicts likely to occur between researchers and participants.
• It helps guarantee a good research report that is objective and acceptable
• It is a professional requirement particularly in a scientific research. Failure
to include research ethics section may result in disciplinary actions against
the researcher, or individual/ organisation intending to carry out a research
project.
Importance of research ethics
• Research ethical guidelines help a researcher avoid embarrassment,
disturbances, legal and ethical implications resulting from
contravention of such guidelines.
• Such embarrassments include shame, denial of academic
achievements and authorship rights; but also serving imprisonment
punishments resulting from plagiarism etc.
• Research ethics are prerequisite for research funding.
• Hence, one of the requirements set buy some research funding
organisations includes the ethical considerations section that clearly
stipulates how to go about various research ethical issues