Ethical problems in research practice

• This article has its origin in the legislative regulation of research ethics and is a contribution to the knowledge about the ethical problems, which researchers actually face in their everyday practice. The study is an example of descriptive ethics with a theoretical background in a model for relations between norms in professional ethics. The empirical method used is critical incidents technique.  Data have been collected by asking researchers about their experiences of ethical problems in their practice. The participants were researchers at the post-doctoral level in the fields of medicine, the humanities, education and social sciences. They had all been awarded grants from the Swedish Research Council. The total data, which comprises 109 examples reported by 55 respondents, is analysed by qualitative content analyses. In the findings reported in this article we can see that researchers deal with a variety of problems related to informed consent and risks of harm, which solutions are dependent on the researchers’ ethical sensitivity, discretion and judgement. Moreover, it may be noted that ethics win over other standards, when ethical consideration has come into conflict with scientific quality. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

research ethics

ethical problems in research

informed consent

risks of harm

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)