Morehead state university iet 698 Research Methods Technology

Session 5

Having a rubric like this will be very useful for future work in this class. I think that after becoming familiar with the criteria in this rubric I will also begin to conduct better research myself.

Scientific misconduct is defined as "the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research" (Scientific Misconduct, 2013).

To determine scientific misconduct the code of scholarly conduct would have to be defined. The code of scholarly conduct is written by each institution to reflect their values but always contains certain universal ideas:

•&νβσπ;The treatment of human subjects.

•&νβσπ;Honesty

•&νβσπ;Maintaining integrity of all experiments and research

•&νβσπ;Publishing the research and results

•&νβσπ;Granting access to others to allow reproduction of the testing

•&νβσπ;Personal responsibility for the research

•&νβσπ;Acknowledging others contributions

This is a partial list of the most important factors that are considered to be a typical code for scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research. These codes are in place to minimize false reporting and unethical behavior in experimentation.

Over time, many horrible studies have been conducted that sacrificed the welfare of humans and animals. Studies that include the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Unit 731, and the Nazi Experiments. Granted, these are all extreme cases, but to ensure these types of things will not happen again we have committees like the Institutional Review Board.

The role of the Institutional Review Board exists to protect the rights and welfare of individual research subjects and to assure that the following requirements are satisfied:

1. Risk to subjects are minimized.

2. Risk to subjects are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits.

3. Selection of subjects is equitable, i.e. fair.

4. Informed consent is sought form each subject or his/her legally authorized

representative.

5. Informed consent is appropriately documented.

6. When appropriate, the research plan makes provisions for monitoring data

collection.

7. Privacy and confidentiality of research subjects is appropriately protected, and

8. When some or all of the subjects are likely to be vulnerable to coercion or undue

influence, additional safeguards have been included.

The Institutional Review Board has to approve that these requirements are followed before they approve a research study and must review these documents on, at the least, an annual basis.

I have included a couple links about some of the most inhumane studies ever conducted if anyone is interested.

http://listverse.com/2008/03/14/top-10-evil-human-experiments/

http://listverse.com/2008/09/07/top-10-unethical-psychological-experiments/

List and explain the components of the informed consent.

Informed consent means the knowing consent of an individual without undue inducement or any element of force, fraud, duress or any other form of constraint or coercion. Sufficient information must be presented (in understandable language) so that the potential subject can make an informed judgment about participation.(UNC Charlotte, 2013) This information can take on a variety of shapes. It can be provided to the potential participant as: a document which may or may not require a signature; a script which is read to the participant prior to proceeding with a telephone survey; a paragraph to be read prior to completing an on-line survey.

Research involving human subjects can pose complex ethical issues which require careful thought and consideration on the part of both researchers and research participants. Prospective participants should always be given adequate information on both the possible risks and the potential benefits of their involvement to allow them to make informed decisions about whether or not to participate in the research.

The following is a list of the minimum information which should be provided for all types of research including anonymous surveys or questionnaires as required by the Code of Federal Regulations:

• A statement that the study involves research

• Explanation of the purposes of the research

• Name(s) of the principal researchers and sponsor(s) where appropriate

• Expected duration of the subject's participation

• Description of the procedures to be followed

• Identification of any procedures which are experimental

• Description of any reasonably foreseeable risks or discomforts to the subject

• Description of any benefits to the subject or to others which may reasonably be expected from the research

• For research involving more than minimal risk, an explanation as to whether there are any treatments or compensation if injury occurs and, if so, what they consist of, or where further information may be obtained.

• Statement describing the extent, if any, to which confidentiality of records identifying the subject will be maintained

• Statement that participation is voluntary, their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once participation has begun and the subject may discontinue participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled.

Works Cited

UNC Charlotte. (2013). Retrieved from Research & Economic Development: http://research.uncc.edu/compliance-ethics/human-subjects/informed-consent

A code of ethics is a set of principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior. The purpose of the code is to provide members and other interested persons with guidelines for making ethical choices in the conduct of their work.

Codes typically divide into four distinct elements: 1) an introduction or preamble, 2) a statement of purposes and values, 3) specific rules of conduct which may be subdivided in various ways, and 4) implementation of the code, which will define administrative processes, reporting, and sanctions. (US Legal, 2013)

Works Cited

US Legal. (2013). Retrieved from http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/code-of-ethics/