Module 10: Ethics in Research

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Learning outcomes

After this module, you should be able to:

• state the core principles of research ethics;
• describe the role and operation of ethics committees;
• protect participant privacy and publish responsibly;
• recognise and avoid research misconduct.

Prerequisites

Complete Module 9 first. Review its quick-revision section if any term below feels unfamiliar.

Study blocks

Study one block at a time. Work through its example and checkpoint before continuing.

Block	Topic	Suggested time
1	Start here: the simple idea	10-15 minutes
2	Ethical considerations in research	10-15 minutes
3	Ethical committees and approvals	10-15 minutes
4	Data privacy and responsible publishing	10-15 minutes
5	Case studies in research misconduct	10-15 minutes

Start here: the simple idea

Research ethics is about trust. Society funds research and trusts researchers to be honest, protect people, and share credit fairly. When that trust breaks (self-plagiarism, faked data, hiding conflicts), the whole community suffers and public support erodes.

Analogy

Research ethics is the "safety protocol" of science: seatbelts, airbags, and traffic rules. They slow you down slightly but prevent catastrophic harm and keep everyone confident the journey is safe.

Ethical considerations in research

The Belmont Report principles (broadly accepted)

1. Respect for persons — informed consent; treat people as agents.
2. Beneficence — maximise benefits, minimise harm.
3. Justice — fairness in selecting participants/studies.

In our stress study

• Consent: explain the exercise programme, that participation is voluntary, and that withdrawing changes nothing.
• Minimal risk: supervised exercise is low-risk, but screen for medical conditions.
• Fairness: offer the programme to both genders and all years equitably.

Part 1: general principles

• Informed consent: participants know the purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, and their right to withdraw.
• Confidentiality / anonymity: data identified by a code, not names.
• Minimising harm: physical, psychological, social, economic.
• Conflict of interest disclosure: funding/ownership that could bias results.
• Data stewardship: collect only what is needed; secure it; dispose of it after retention.

Part 2: special populations and settings

• Vulnerable groups: children, prisoners, pregnant people, cognitively impaired — need extra protections and often a waiver is denied.
• Digital studies: social-media scraping, learning analytics — clear consent and data-minimisation.
• International / cross-cultural: cultural norms and local laws differ; obtain local approval.

Ethical committees and approvals

• Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Research Ethics Committee (REC) / IEC: independent body that reviews protocol, consent forms, and risk/benefit.
• Submission includes: protocol, consent form, PI training, data-management plan, insurance for trials.
• Outcomes: approval (possibly with conditions), deferral, or disapproval.
• Continuing review: renewed annually; amended for major changes.
• Vulnerable-population review: extra layers of scrutiny.

Data privacy and responsible publishing

Data privacy

• Minimise: collect only necessary data.
• Anonymise / pseudonymise: remove/replace identifiers.
• Secure: encryption at rest/in transit; access controls.
• Comply: GDPR (EU), HIPAA (US health), local data-protection laws.
• Retention & disposal: keep per policy; then securely destroy.

Responsible publishing

• Honest reporting: include negatives, limitations, failed experiments.
• Authorship: credit only those who meet criteria (ICMJE); avoid gift/gift or ghost authorship.
• Plagiarism & self-plagiarism: cite reused text/methods; use citation managers and plagiarism checkers.
• Reproducibility: share data/code where possible; use open repositories.
• Preprints: faster sharing, but note they are not peer-reviewed.

Case studies in research misconduct

1. Data fabrication: Diederichs, dead-space neurons — invented images.
2. Data falsification: STAP cells (Obokata) — manipulated gels.
3. Plagiarism: copying text/methods without citation.
4. Self-plagiarism / duplicate publication: resubmitting the same paper.
5. Questionable authorship: gift (name on paper for prestige), guest (excluded a contributor), ghost (paid writer not named).
6. HARKing (Hypothesizing After Results are Known) — presenting post-hoc findings as a priori hypotheses.

Consequences: retractions, loss of funding, career damage, legal action.

PDF-aligned additions

Privacy and responsible publishing

Protect personal data through data minimisation, purpose limitation, access control, secure storage, de-identification where appropriate, retention limits, and controlled disclosure. Informed consent should explain purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, confidentiality, voluntary participation, and withdrawal.

Ethics review is required when the project falls under the institution's human- participant or other review rules. Report methods, exclusions, negative results, conflicts of interest, and limitations honestly. Do not exaggerate conclusions or publish private information merely because it is available.

Common mistakes

• Treating ethics as a box-ticking exercise (ethics is integral, not paperwork).
• Assuming anonymity = IRB approval (still need consent and risk review).
• Collecting "just a little more" data than needed (data minimisation).
• Authorship based on seniority rather than contribution.

Memory rules

• Belmont: Respect, Beneficence, Justice.
• IRB/REC = independent review of protocol + consent + risk/benefit.
• Privacy: minimise, anonymise, secure, comply, retain-then-delete.
• Publishing: honest + fair authorship + reproducible + cite everything.
• Misconduct = fabrication, falsification, plagiarism (FFP).

Check your understanding

1. Name the three Belmont Report principles.
2. What does "informed consent" require?
3. Give one example of data minimisation in our stress study.
4. What problem arises when a paper is submitted to two journals simultaneously?

Answers

Reveal answers after attempting the questions

1. Respect for persons, beneficcence, justice.
2. Disclosure of purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, voluntariness, and right to withdraw.
3. Measure only stress + step count (not, say, academic grades or social media) needed for the question.
4. Duplicate/duplicate publication — most journals reject this unless explicitly allowed; wastes reviewers' time.

Quick revision box

• Core ethics: informed consent, confidentiality/anonymity, beneficence, justice, conflict-of-interest disclosure.
• IRB/REC: independent review of protocol, consent, risks; continuing review; vulnerable-population protections.
• Data privacy: minimise, anonymise/pseudonymise, secure, comply (GDPR/HIPAA), manage retention.
• Responsible publishing: honest reporting, fair authorship, reproducibility, cite third-party work.
• Misconduct: fabrication, falsification, plagiarism (FFP); HARKing; ghost/gift authorship.

Exam guidance

Define the method, justify why it fits the research question, apply it to the running study, and mention one limitation or ethical consideration.

Practice ladder

1. Easy - Recall: Define the module's central idea in one or two sentences.
2. Easy - Recognize: Identify the correct method for a small example and explain why it fits.
3. Medium - Apply: Work through one representative problem without copying the example.
4. Medium - Compare: Contrast two methods or concepts from the module.
5. Hard - Integrate: Solve a university-style scenario and justify every major step.

Reveal self-evaluation guide

A complete response uses correct terminology, shows intermediate steps, connects the result to the scenario, and states one assumption or limitation.

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