Importance of Ethics in Research

It is said that ethics is the branch of philosophy which deals with the dynamics of decision making concerning what is right and wrong. It is the system of moral principle that a person must follow, irrespective of the place or time and behaving ethically involves doing the right thing at the right time (1). One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues (2).

Many different disciplines, institutions, and professions have standards for behavior that suit their particular aims and goals. These standards also help members of the discipline to coordinate their actions or activities and to establish the public’s trust of the discipline. For instance, ethical standards govern conduct in medicine, law, engineering, and business. Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and apply to people who conduct scientific research or other scholarly or creative activities (3). Scientific research work, as all human activities, is governed by individual, community and social values. Research ethics involve requirements on daily work, the protection of dignity of subjects and the publication of the information in the research (1).

The term research ethics refers to a wide variety of values, norms, and institutional arrangements that help constitute and regulate scientific activities. Research ethics is a codification of scientific morality in practice. Research ethics and methodologies are closely linked, with ethically sound research protocols and tools adding to the value of the research. Various guidelines of research ethics described ethical principles to minimize the risk of potential harm resulting from the data collection process to participants, researchers and others, and ensure that any remaining risks are outweighed by the potential benefits as follows:

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1. Ethics that constitute good scientific practice (academic freedom, originality, openness, trustworthiness etc.)
2. Ethics that regulate the research community (integrity, accountability, impartiality, criticism etc.)
3. Ethics that regulate relationship to people who take part in the research (Human dignity respect, Privacy, Consent, Confidentiality, Limited re-use, Responsibility for avoiding harm)
4. Ethics that regulate relationship to the rest of society (independence, conflicts of interest, social responsibility, dissemination of research etc.)

Even though researchers must ensure that they do not commit any of the acts those can possibly violate ethics in research, there are several cases of research ethics violation; a violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research since the 1980’s. Many of research ethics violations in the history of research are conducted by willful ignorance of data, evidence of falsifying, skewing of data or deliberate misrepresentation of data and the misuse of human subjects (4). Moreover the following acts are identified by various researches as violation of ethics in research (5).

• Fabrication comprises the creation of false data or other aspects of research, including documentation and participant consent.
• Falsification comprises inappropriate manipulation and/or selection of data, images and/or other contents.
• Plagiarism comprises the misappropriation or use of others’ ideas, intellectual property or work (written or otherwise), without acknowledgement or permission. It includes self-plagiarism: reuse of one’s own work without suitable acknowledgement or permission.

Misrepresentation includes:

1. Misrepresentation of data, such as by suppression of relevant findings, or knowingly, recklessly or by gross negligence presenting a flawed data interpretation;
2. Undisclosed duplication of publication, including duplicate submission of manuscripts for publication;
3. Misrepresentation of interests, including failure to declare material interests either of the researcher or of the research funders;
4. Misrepresentation of qualifications and/or experience, including claiming or implying qualifications or experience not held; and/or
5. Misrepresentation of involvement, such as inappropriate claims to authorship and/or attribution of work where there has been no significant contribution, or the denial of authorship where an author has made a significant contribution.

Breach of duty of care includes, whether deliberately, recklessly or by gross negligence:

1. Disclosing improperly the identity of individuals or groups involved in research without their consent, or any other breach of confidentiality;
2. Placing any of those involved in research in danger, whether as subjects, participants or associated individuals, without their prior consent, and without appropriate safeguards even with consent (this includes reputational danger where that can be predicted);
3. Not taking all reasonable care to ensure that the risks and dangers, the broad objectives and the sponsors of the research are known to participants or their legal representatives, and/or to ensure appropriate informed consent is obtained properly, explicitly and transparently;
4. Not observing legal and reasonable ethical requirements or obligations of care for human or animal subjects, human organs or tissue used in research, or for the protection of the environment; and/or
5. Improper conduct in peer review of research proposals or results (including manuscripts submitted for publication); this includes failure to disclose conflicts of interest; inadequate disclosure of clearly limited competence; misappropriation of the content; and breach of confidentiality or abuse of material provided in confidence for peer review purposes.
6. Breach of any express or implied confidentiality provision including provisions relating to externally awarded funding or research involving external organisations.

Failure to meet ethical, legal and professional obligations includes failure to meet the standards of relevant professional bodies (e.g. the General Medical Council) and standards and limitations applied to research by research funders or Research Ethics Committees. Failure to meet ethical, legal and professional standards may also comprise failure to declare competing interests; misrepresentation of involvement or authorship; misrepresentation of interests; breach of confidentiality; lack of informed consent; misuse of personal data; and abuse of research subjects or materials.

Improper dealing with allegations of misconduct includes:

1. Failure to address possible infringements, including attempts to cover up misconduct or reprisals against whistle-blowers; and/or
2. Failure to deal appropriately with malicious allegations, which should be handled formally as breaches of good conduct.

There are many examples throughout history of research causing harm such as exploiting disadvantaged populations without benefit, experimenting on people without their knowledge and violations of privacy as the result of violation of ethics (7). Unethical Research mainly in medical sector has occurred around the world, in both developed and developing countries where the lack of voluntary, informed participation and adequately informed consent are probably the most common problems. Some of the unethical trials are of a recent date; some were even being carried out in 2005 or later. Although it is sometimes argued that instances of unethical clinical trials are isolated and outdated, this is not always true.

Note that some older cases have been included in the overview as well, mainly because the developments following these trials are still going on (6). Some researchers sometimes take advantage of a vulnerable population of individuals, whom they knew did not have the resources to afford medical treatment or the education to question their medical expertise. Poor decisions on the part of the researchers, influenced by bigotry, allowed this to happen. But this kind of research is simply unacceptable.

Some of ethical violations experienced in researches as stated by UC Devis Office of Research are:

1. Nazi Experiments: Conducted by Nazi doctors in concentration camps during WWII on thousands of prisoners purposely by infecting prisoners, exposing them to dangerous conditions.
2. Willow brook School for Mentally Retarded Children: conducted on Residents Staten Island, NY; 1956-1971 by purposely infecting with hepatitis through injection without fully explaining risks full and taking consent. For a time, study participation required of all new students in order to be accepted into the school
3. Milgram Obedience Studies (1960s): conducted by Stanley Milgram, social psychologist
   to see how far “obedience” would go by telling participants to give electric shocks to an unseen individual in another room without revealing the whole truth about the experiment. This experiment caused anxiety, embarrassment, and discomfort for participants
4. Tearoom Trade Study (1960s): Laud Humphreys, sociology PhD student
   in St. Louis Observed men having sex in public restrooms, wrote down license plate numbers and later went to men’s homes pretending to be conducting general health study by invasion of privacy
5. Havasupai Tribe (1990s: Researcher from University of Arizona collected blood
   samples from tribe members to study type II diabetes. He also used samples to study schizophrenia and shared samples with other researchers without agreement of participant by violating privacy
6. Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (Tuskegee): Government-funded research recruited black men, tested for syphilis but not told they had it and kept infected from getting treatment even which finally increased disability and early death on those left untreated

References

1. Georgia Fouka1, Marianna Mantzorou2, 2020What are the major ethical issues in conducting research? is there a conflict between the research ethics and the nature of nursing?
2. David B. Resnik, J.D., Ph.D. December 1, 2015, What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It Important? National institute of invironmental science. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/
3. David B. Resnik, J.D., Ph.D. December 1, 2015, What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It Important? National institute of invironmental science. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/.
4. Scientific misconduct, published on Explorable.com (https://explorable.com).
5. Mark Jobling, Dr Juliet Bailey, June 2017 2017 report on Research Integrity UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER
6. SOMO briefing paper on ethics in clinical trials February 2008 (updated). Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations Francis Weyzig and Irene Schipper
7.  UC Devis Office of Research: History of Research Abuses https://research.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/CIRTification-Curriculum.pdf