Ethics in Research

Dr. Ribed Vianneca W. Jubilee

 Ethics in Research
provides researchers with ethical principles
or guidelines for the successful conduct of
research.

WHAT IS ETHICS?
 The morality of human
act.
rightness or wrongness of
a human act

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  Concerned with what is good for the
people and the society as a whole.

 Provides rules that govern the society as a

whole.

 Behaving ethically = doing the right thing at

the right time.

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 In research, ethics:
 provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of
research.
 allows researchers and scholars to further educate themselves and monitor their
activities in the conduct of research
ensure a HIGH ethical standard
 ensure that research subjects or participants are not placed in harm's way.
 be reminded that they have the moral obligation to provide maximum benefits to
the participants.
 This means that researchers need not think only of their own interest why they
conduct the research
 be guided by ethical principles in the conduct of the research to maintain
research integrity and avoid research misconduct.
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 • there are acceptable and unacceptable conductive research
especially when humans and animals are involved.
Example:
NAZI HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION
 Series of medical experiments on a large
number of concentration camp prisoners
including children conducted by Nazi Germany.
 Nazi medical doctors forced concentration
camp prisoners to participate in the
experiment; in fact the prisoners did not
willingly volunteer to participate; and no
consent was given for the procedures.
 The experiments had resulted in trauma,
disfigurement permanent, disability and
death.

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 The famous experiments that the Nazi medical doctors
conducted in the prisoners:

sterilization and fertilization experiments

head injury experiments

mustard gas experiments

freezing experiments

malaria experiments

experiments on twins

bones, muscles and nerve transplantation experiments

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 Ethical Principles that Guide Research
HONESTY OBJECTIVITY
• Researchers ought to honestly • Researchers should uphold
report data and results of the objectivity and scientific rigor
study including the methods at all times.
and procedures employed in • Researchers should strive to
data gathering as well as avoid all forms of bias in
publication status. research such as bias in
experimental design, data
• Researchers should not analysis and interpretation,
falsify, fabricate, and peer-review process, grant
misrepresent data and writing and other facets of
results. research.
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 Confidentiality
• Researchers should always
uphold the principle of
confidentiality.
• One way of effectively doing
this is to protect confidential
communications such as papers
or grants submitted for
publications, patient records
and the like.
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Competence
• Researchers are supposed to be
knowledgeable and experts in
their own discipline or field of
specialization.
• They ought to maintain and
improve their professional
competence and expertise through
lifelong education and learning.
• They ought to take steps to
promote competence in science or
social science field.
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 Integrity Legality
• Researchers ought to keep • Research always has a legal
their promises and honor dimension.
agreements such as agreements • Researchers ought to obey
with donors and research
participants. laws and relevant
institutional and
• Researchers need to strive governmental policies.
for consistency in thought
and action.

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 Maturity and openness
• Knowledge is supposed to be
free.
• Researchers must willingly
share data, results, ideas and • They should not use methods,
resources.
• They must also be open to
constructive criticisms and new
ideas
Respect for intellectual
property
• Researchers ought to honor
copyrights, patents, and other
forms of intellectual property.
data, and results owned by
other researchers or scholars
without permission or proper
acknowledgement.
• Researchers should avoid
plagiarism at all times.

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 Responsible Publication.
Researchers need to publish in order to advance
knowledge and scholarships and not just to
advance one's own career.
Researchers also need to avoid wasteful
publication such as publishing in predatory
journals, and duplicative publication.

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 Non-Discrimination
Researchers ought to avoid all forms of discrimination
against colleagues and students on the basis of sex, race,
ethnicity, and other factors that are related to scientific
competence and integrity.
Senior researchers also need to help educate, mentor and
advise students; have to promote the welfare of their
students and allow them to make their own decisions.

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 Human subjects' protection.
o Researchers should respect human dignity, privacy and
autonomy at all times.
o When conducting research on human subjects, researchers
should take precautionary measures to minimize if not
completely avoid, harms and risks.
o They also need to maximize the benefits that participants
may get from the results of the study.
o If a researcher discovers a cure for a particular disease
through her research on indigenous plants, a reasonable
part of the patent should go to the indigenous community
or communities where the plants are located.
o ​
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 Animal Care
o In recent years, we have what we call “animal rights”.
o Researchers should respect animal rights at all times.
o They ought to show utmost care for animals when using them in
research.
o Researchers therefore should NOT conduct unnecessary or poorly
designed animal experiments.

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Social Responsibility
Researchers should
conduct research not only
for the advancement of
their own career but for the
good of society as a whole.

Researchers should strive

to promote social good and
mitigate social harms.

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thank you
Ribed Vianneca W. Jubilee
ribed@ums.edu.my