Research ethics examines how research should be done and its potential impacts, says Michael Hoffmann, a professor of philosophy at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy.
It’s important because if research isn’t trustworthy and social trust in science dwindles, it can have far-reaching consequences for policymaking and society, he adds.
Learn more in Hoffmann’s two-minute lecture on the topic:
Transcript: What is Research Ethics?
“The main point in research ethics are two different things. The first question is: ‘How is the research done?’ And the second question is: ‘What are the effects of the research that is done?’”
Important themes in research ethics include:
- Trustworthiness — Fraudulent data, flawed data, or personal bias can all affect the trustworthiness of a project.
- Risk of harm — Are human or animal participants harmed during the research process?
- Authorship and ownership — Who owns the research that gets published?
- Impact on society — How might the published research impact society?
So, why is research ethics important?
“The harm issue is clear: if you harm somebody, that’s important, and that needs to be avoided. But with regard to trustworthiness and ownership, that is also important.
“For example, if you think about fraudulent research — that would be research where the data or the results are fabricated — and the harm that is done with that is that you are risking the career of upcoming new generations of researchers. Everybody who is doing a Ph.D. builds on research that has already been done. And if, as a Ph.D. student, you build on something that is fraudulent, then there’s nothing that you can publish at the end. Your career is simply done.
“But there’s another one that is becoming more and more important, and that is the trust that society puts in scientific outcomes. We are all complaining that policies should be made based on scientific insights, right? But if you are making important political decisions about anything, and the decision is based on unreliable knowledge, then it’s a catastrophe.
“So it’s really important that society can trust the scientific endeavor as a whole. And if this kind of global trust in science is endangered, then this has far-reaching consequences for policymaking and for societies in general.”
Watch more two-minute lectures from experts in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
