Ethics in research is extremely important for the credibility of the research to the outside world. "Appropriate application of scientific research depends partly on the integrity of the scientific methods used but even more on careful explanation and interpretation of the conclusions"(Berger, 2005). There are various ethical practices to make sure this doesn't take place. Understanding the ethical principles and guidelines that influence research is imperative for every researcher and professional working in that particular field. The following will address the essentials of research ethics.
There are a number of key ideas that deal with the idea of ethics in research. One of these ideas is called voluntary participation. This requires that people act of their own free will to participate in the study. This is especially important when researchers want to do a study on subjects who are grouped in a place, but might still not want to participate.
English: This graph is a cumulative distribution f...
Research being carried out at the Microscopy lab o...
English: A panorama of a research room taken at th...Another idea is of informed consent, which means that possible research participants are fully informed of all the risks that are involved with the specific study they are participating in, and give their consent to participate in it (Trochim, 2006). This is in particular importance because if the effects on the participant that are possibly harmful then the person has the right to know. The person also has the right to make an informed decision. It would be unfair to expose a subject to either an environment or situation, that the person is not ready to interact with or incapable of mentally dealing with.
Another ethical standard that researchers must comply to is not put the subjects in a situation where they might be at risk of harm as a result of their participation. Harm can be classified as either physical or psychological (Trochim, 2006). Even though the goal is...