A Comprehensive Analysis of Ethical Considerations in Research Methods

This report provides a comprehensive overview of ethical considerations in research, focusing on various data collection methods. It explores the importance of adhering to ethical principles to ensure the authenticity, reliability, and viability of research studies. The report examines five primary data collection methods: interviews, questionnaires, experiments, observation, and the use of documents and secondary research. For each method, it discusses specific ethical considerations, such as obtaining informed consent, ensuring participant safety and confidentiality, avoiding deceptive practices, and properly referencing sources. The report emphasizes the significance of ethical conduct in maintaining public trust, ensuring the appropriate use of information and funds, and promoting the overall integrity of the research process. The conclusion reinforces the crucial role of ethics in research, summarizing key principles like eliminating harm, obtaining informed consent, avoiding deception, and protecting privacy.

Exploring Research: Concepts &
Methods

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...........................................................................................................1
Ethical Consideration...................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................3
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................1
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Research concepts and methods plays a vital role in making study authentic and feasible,
as it comprises overall philosophy, approach, data collection and analysis process. The essential
part of entire methodology is ethical consideration which helps scholar in making research
reliable and viable. The assessment will evaluate measures taken by researcher for adhering to
ethics in different data collection methods.
MAIN BODY
Ethical Consideration
Adhering to ethics is the foremost priority of researcher where purpose researcher is on
accumulating principles and values to address topics of human interest. Further, it can be stated
that ethical consideration is a critical concept which helps the scholar in differentiating between
right and wrong of the situations (Iphofen, 2011). The individual is liable to comply with ethical
standards to ensure acceptability and reliability of particular research methods. Measures of ethic
helps the investigator in making applied linguistics process smooth and systematic (Denscombe,
2014). Considering decency and morals while conducting investigation is an effective practice
because it helps individual in deriving appropriate use of information and funds which assist in
attaining public support. Ethical principle to different research methods are discussed below:
Interviews: It is a primary data collection method where the researcher prepared open ended or
close question to ask participant while personal interaction. It is considered a most viable way of
gathering current information about research topic (Creswell, 2009). However, adhering to ethics
for interviewing participant is subject of concern where the scholar aims at obtaining informed
consent to potential respondents. Further, it is the responsibility of investigator to ensure safety
and security of participant against uncertain incidents which can cause harm to individuals
(Vayena and Tasioulas, 2013). Moreover, protecting confidentiality and anonymity of interview
and answers provided by particular respondents is the core practice which needs to be adhered.
Thus, it can be said that safety, permission, confidentiality, location and procedure are some of
the measures which needs to be in favour of participants.
Questionnaires: It is the basic instrument of research which comprise set of question relevant to
topic of study (Bryman, 2016). It is formulated with the purpose of collecting primary data with
the help of survey, interview, quiz, etc. Ethical questionaries’ comprise proper designing where it
is important for researcher omit choice of words because it limits opinion of researcher which
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can result into biased research outcomes (Vanclay, Baines and Taylor, 2013). Moreover, set of
questions needs to be framed with good faith and not just to target one specific negative thought.
Similarly, informed consent is common ethical principle which needs to adhered by scholar for
determining interest of respondents in research topic. In addition, the most important code of
ethics for Questionnaire method is debriefing where, it is the responsibility of researcher to
discuss all elements of investigation with each participant (Travis, 2017).
Experiments: The method is controlled by variables which share cause and effect relationship. It
is knowns as careful measurement method where hypothesis is framed and tested by scholar. It is
mostly used in medical and scientific studies and helps scholar in getting less bias and valid
outcomes. There are different types of experiment method that is, controlled, natural and field
(Kane and O'Reilly-de Brún, 2001). In accordance with experiment research method, it is the
responsibility of scholar to respect dignity and rights of participants who are involved in specific
experiment. Further, ethical principles aim at protecting human rights where scholar is liable to
ensure safety of respondents who are undergoing experiment (Ethics in Experimental Research,
2018). For instance, medical studies where researcher test medical equipment’s and advanced
tool on patients. In addition, ethics enables principle to withdraw name out of study any time, in
case respondent is not comfortable with particular experiment or trial.
Observation: In this method investigator observes continuous behaviour of participants or
particular experiments to derive research outcome. It is considered as informal action to collect
formal data (Miles and et.al., 1994). It is basically followed in therapeutic, controlled and
randomized trials. In accordance with different types of observation data collection method, it
can be said that eliminating risk of harm and removing deceptive practices are two ethical code
of conduct which are required for ethical considerations (Oliver, 2010). In this method
observation is done by checking information of other person for example, patient medical
records, diagnosis, family history, allergic tolerance, etc. However, observing such information
is unethical that is why it is necessary for the researcher to seek informed consent and seek
voluntary participation of individual who will be part of study.
Documents and secondary research: This is secondary data collection process where the focus
of researcher is on accumulating past facts and figures with regard to topic of study. This is
essential part of investigation as it acts as a base for overall outcomes. In this scholar aim at
summarizing information from different secondary sources that is articles, books, journals,
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online blogs, governmental publication, etc. Ethical consideration of secondary study and
documents is denoted by references and in texting of information (Flick, 2014). In this scholar is
responsible for citing relevant references for accumulated information. Authentication of
secondary sources denotes viability and reliability of gathered data. Apart from this, it is
important for the investigator to seek permission from government authorities for conducting
secondary research and considering facts and figures of governmental publication.
Further, research is liable to make valid use of data to avoid misconduct. On the other
hand, issue of copy right is the major concern of secondary information where it is important for
the individual to assure authorities that study is done for specific purpose and not to misuse or
misinterpret facts (Grinyer, 2009). Thus, it can be outline that adhering to ethics in documents
and secondary information is focused on social responsibility, intellectual property, non-
discriminatory practices and confidentiality.
CONCLUSION
The report summarized the importance and measures of adhering to ethics while
conducting data collection process. The assessment was based on five main methods that is
questionnaires, interview, secondary sources, experiment and observation. Hence, from entire
discussion it can be concluded that code of ethics for research comprise eliminating risk of harm,
informed consent, avoiding deceptive practices, maintaining confidentiality and anonymity.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HB-
VAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=An+introduction+to+qualitative+research&ots=k
Dr25TpQXe&sig=qEsvPg4vRwUOtQxr5cPqya42Sfw#v=onepage&q=An
%20introduction%20to%20qualitative%20research&f=false
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=N2zQCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=SOCIAL+RESEARCH+MET
HODS+BY+BRYMAN+&ots=doLAHXP9pd&sig=kvoO28MOboVmM-
mZpQj9Tla7zfw#v=onepage&q=SOCIAL%20RESEARCH%20METHODS%20BY
%20BRYMAN&f=false
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=C5BFBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=GOOD+RESEARCH+GUID
E+BY+DENSCOMBE&ots=guOo4w6xcw&sig=aikqEBYjV-
RWr_Awi3JvSW7oLzc#v=onepage&q=GOOD%20RESEARCH%20GUIDE%20BY
%20DENSCOMBE&f=false
https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U4lU_-
wJ5QEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR12&dq=QUALITATIVE+DATA+ANALSYSIS:
+AN+EXPANDED+SOURCEBOOK+BY+MILES&ots=kEVI3LVQXT&sig=gF2Ty7o
NN2vvZ3eXWovSDPPYMWk#v=onepage&q=QUALITATIVE%20DATA
%20ANALSYSIS%3A%20AN%20EXPANDED%20SOURCEBOOK%20BY
%20MILES&f=false
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bryman, A., 2016. Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Creswell, J.W., 2009. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches
(Vol. 4). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Flick, U., 2014. An introduction to qualitative research. Sage.
Iphofen, R., 2011. Ethical decision making in qualitative research. Qualitative Research. 11(4).
pp.443-446.
Kane, E. and O'Reilly-de Brún, M., 2001. Doing your own research. Marion Boyars.
Oliver, P., 2010. The student's guide to research ethics. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Vanclay, F., Baines, J.T. and Taylor, C.N., 2013. Principles for ethical research involving
humans: ethical professional practice in impact assessment Part I. Impact Assessment and
Project Appraisal. 31(4). pp.243-253.
Denscombe, M., 2014. The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Miles, M.B. and et.al., 1994. Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. sage.
Vayena, E. and Tasioulas, J., 2013. Adapting standards: ethical oversight of participant-led
health research. PLoS medicine. 10(3). p. e1001402.
Online
Ethics in Experimental Research. 2018. [Online]. Available through: <
https://cirt.gcu.edu/research/developmentresources/research_ready/experimental/ethics>.
Grinyer A., 2009. The ethics of the secondary analysis and further use of qualitative data.
[Online]. Available through: < http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU56.pdf>.
Travis E., 2017. Ethics in Questionnaires. [Online]. Available through: <
https://bizfluent.com/info-8064289-ethics-questionnaires.html>.
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