Importance of Informed Consent and Data Security in Research

This essay discusses the importance of informed consent and data security in research. It explains the ethical principles and issues related to research, such as harm to participants, invasion of privacy, lack of informed consent, data theft, and deception involvement. The essay also highlights the significance of informed consent and data security in research and how they help in executing research activities properly. The subject is research ethics, and the course code and college/university are not mentioned.

Essay
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Contents
Explore the importance of informed consent and data security in research....................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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Explore the importance of informed consent and data security in research
Research is referred as development of new knowledge by the use of existing information in
a proper manner. In addition to this, it is a detailed study into a particular concern, issue or
problem by using scientific method (Allard and et. al., 2018). It is important for researchers to
follow all the ethical principles while conducting the study as it help in avoiding issues such as
data theft, misinterpretation and many more. The main objective of the report is to importance of
informed consent and data security in research.
In context to research, ethics are basically the standards to conduct activities of study in a
proper and ethical manner. Along with this, it is vital to adhere to all the ethical principles as it
assist to protect the rights, dignity as well a welfare of investigation participants. The different
ethical issues are harm to participants, invasion of privacy, lack of informed consent, data theft,
deception involvement and many more. The different principles of research ethics are justice,
conflict of interest, integrity, informed consent, confidentiality, data protection, justice,
anonymity, respect for persons, beneficence & non-maleficence and many more (Andrew, 2019).
Following of all this ethical principles is significant in order to implement out all the activities
without any issues and interruptions as well. There are various ethical issues arise while
conducting the study and to resolve them is important for researcher so that objectives are
attained within set time frame. The two major ethical principles among all the principles which
plays important role in dissertation is informed consent and data security.
Informed consent ethical principle states that the prospective investigation respondents
should have the information about the objective of conducting study and research objective as
well. In addition to this, this information help participants to make an effective and informed
decision regarding whether they participate in the study or not. It is analysed that informed
consent principle provides an opportunity to research worker to collect authentic and valid
information from respondents due to which the investigation that is developed involves high
reliability and credibility. This principle also entails that when participants know about they are
being participate within the study then they are also aware about the whole research process. It is
determined that implementing informed consent is seeming easier but involve major
complexities. It is analysed that it is complex to present all the information to prospective
respondents which might be needed to make an effective and informed decision about their
involvement. Presenting all the information and then gathering data from participants is a time
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consuming process due to which sometimes prospective respondents did not take interest and
also not provide appropriate data that lacks validity of study (Barsky, 2017). The another issue is
that a study include wide range of people and to provide same information sometimes is
disruptive. Therefore, it is the responsibility of research worker to protect and preserve the
dignity, freedom and well-being of research participants. This can take place by an effective and
careful informed consent and research design from all respondents. It is also important to explain
the nature and aim of investigation so that they can freely choose to become involved or not. It
also consist of explanations about warning of possible harm as well as providing explicit chance
to refuse to participate and terminate out at any period of time.
It is analysed that informed consent is basically a legal and ethical requirement for an
investigation consisting human participants and also it is the procedure where respondents is
informed about all aspect that is significant in order to carry out research in ethical and effective
manner. Informed consent is vital within an investigation as it inform respondents of any risks
which they might be face by participating in study. Also, it provide knowledge regrading the
results of research will be disseminated . Furthermore, it indicate that respondents are free or not
free to participate within the study. It is significant that the consent from must be in written form
as it show authenticity to participants and also develop trust within their mind due to which they
are easily given information about the specific topic (Chua and et. al., 2018). Moreover,
informed consent also inform participants about the rights they have within the research process
and the right to withdraw from the process.
Data security is very important to have proper ethical concern that is related with the degree
of invasions of privacy issues. The right to data security which is associated with the guidance
that is notion of informed consent. It is associated with the degree of informed consent that is on
the basis of detailed understanding of the participant involvement, if there is a breach in data
security then it may lead to serious consequence for various research subjects,. Research subject
may lead to unintentional disclosure of sensitive it important information that can lead to further
theft, emotional, financial embarrassment and other harms. Researcher may also suffer from
reputation damage that can lead to difficulty in the process of obtaining data in future time
period. In every situation privacy breach may result into serious consequence for research
subjects, home situation and the researcher. Data provider required additional security
protections and may terminate the access to data. It is important to protect and secure the data as
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it is related with protecting the critical informatory technology eco system. It may include
accounts, files, database and networks (Hewitt and Carlson, 2019). Effective data security is
associated with set of applications, controls and techniques that are identified as importance of
various data sets and then application in the process of security controls. Data security is
important as it helps in the process of evaluation of thetas and thus reducing the process of data
Storage, handling and all associated risks. It is the moral & legal obligation of researcher to
ensure that they are protecting all the information and customer data. There can also be
reputation risks of hack or data breach which may permanently damage the process of loosing of
relevant data or information. So, it becomes important to protect the data in such a way so that
damage can be repaired and further improvements can be done.
Data security refers the overall process to protect data from unauthorized access along with
data corruption. The concept of data security included aspects such as data encryption and key
management practices that protect data across all applications and platformers. In context to
research data security plays a crucial role. The data security allows for the protection of research
institutions especially when the research is conducted on a sensitive topic or if the data is
sensitive in nature (Mertens, 2018). This is crucial to keep the research with the assigned body in
order to ensure that the research remains safe. The various benefits of data security in context to
research are Access control is the concept of data security allows to have total control over a
research especially when the topic of the research is sensitive in nature. This ensures that the
research is safe from malicious elements. Another is Authentication that helps in establishing an
authentication barriers relative to the research. This aspect allows access authenticate access to
research resulting in the elimination misuse of research in various aspects. Moreover, Backup
and recovery also plays a vital role in context to research as it provides an essential feature to
backup research content as well as provide the ability to recover a research that may have been
corrupted. Furthermore, Encryption concept of data security provides an important feature to
research that is crucial to protect valuable research data. This function of data security helps in
ensuring the that content of research is encrypted and only accessible by an authorised personnel.
Therefore, it is analysed that informed consent and data security is important within an
investigation as it ensure protection from any ethical issue and execution of research activities
properly that leads researcher to attain objectives within set time frame (Todak, Gaub and White,
2018).
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From the above discussion, it has been concluded that it is significant for researcher to
consider all the ethical principles while conducting the study as it help in declining the level of
ethical issues and problems. In addition to this, there are various ethical principles such as
informed consent, anonymity and many more. Following of all this help in execution of activities
associated to study in a proper and effective manner. Furthermore, it is determined that data
security is important while conducting research as it help to prevent disclosure, unauthorised
access, amendment of information and so on.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Allard, S. W and et. al. 2018. State agencies’ use of administrative data for improved practice:
Needs, challenges, and opportunities. Public Administration Review, 78(2). pp.240-250.
Andrew, D. P., Pedersen, P. M. and McEvoy, C. D., 2019. Research methods and design in sport
management. Human Kinetics.
Barsky, A. E., 2017. Social work practice and technology: Ethical issues and policy
responses. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 35(1). pp.8-19.
Chua, H. N and et. al.,2018. Impact of employees’ demographic characteristics on the awareness
and compliance of information security policy in organizations. Telematics and
Informatics, 35(6). pp.1770-1780.
Hewitt, J. R. and Carlson, J. B., 2019. Securities practice and electronic technology. Law Journal
Press.
Mertens, D. M., 2018. Ethics of qualitative data collection. The SAGE handbook of qualitative
data collection.pp.33-48.
Todak, N., Gaub, J. E. and White, M. D., 2018. The importance of external stakeholders for
police body-worn camera diffusion. Policing: An International Journal.
Online
Ethics in business research, 2011 [Online] Available through;<
https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/research/forms-and-downloads/bryman-bell-2007-ethics-
in-business-research.pdf>
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