Ensuring Ethical Standards: School Requirements
In recent times, ethical research standards have come to the fore. An increasingly litigious society places individuals and institutions at risk if they interact with people in an inappropriate or otherwise poorly considered way. Any research participant who is harmed; believes they have been harmed; or is thought of by another as having been harmed, has been treated inappropriately. This ‘harm’ may arise by gaining poorly-informed consent (or no consent at all); inappropriate data gathering methods; inappropriate analysis and/or reporting of data; inappropriate data handling; the breaking of an ‘ethical contract,’ and so forth.
Simple measures can be taken during the design and implementation of research to ensure such untenable situations do not arise. The School policy and processes seek to ensure such measures are taken, to benefit the University, the School, academic staff, students and research participants alike.
The School requires all academics – be they performing externally funded research, unfunded research, or consultancy – to carefully consider the ethical consequences of their work. All students undertaking research – be they research, postgraduate or undergraduate – must also work with their supervisor to address any ethical issues raised by their investigations.
The School provides a ‘mini-checklist’ to guide the consideration of core ethical issues. It provides a concise precursor to the University’s Ethical Advisory Committee review process, which is not always required. Everyone must complete the School’s mini-checklist, even if their work doesn’t interact with or otherwise affect humans. The outcome of the mini-checklist – and any funding decision involved – determines whether full University ethical clearance is then required.
To help you comply with School policy, the following information is available:
- Flowcharts illustrating the processes to be followed and clarifying the interaction of the School’s mini-checklist with the University’s full Ethical Checklist.
- Frequently Asked Questions addressing common concerns regarding the role and implications of the School mini-checklist.
- The mini-checklist itself, for completion.
The following additional resources may be helpful to those seeking more information on ethics:
- Remenyi, D. et al. (2011). Ethics Protocol and Research Ethics Committees: Successfully Obtaining Approval for your Academic Research. Reading: Academic Publishing International.
- Fewings, P. (2009). Ethics for the Built Environment. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.
- Blackburn, S. (2003). Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Social Research Association (2003). Ethical Guidelines. Available from: http://www.the-sra.org.uk/documents/pdfs/ethics03.pdf
- Loughborough University ethical standards (2009). Further information available from: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/committees/ethical/index.html
Queries regarding ethics and School processes can in the first instance be addressed to:
Derek Thomson d.s.thomson@lboro.ac.uk; 01509 222895; RT.1.17 (email preferred).
