ETHICS OF WRITING

Introduction
This topic introduces you to the need to appreciate ethics when developing your research study.
You must be aware of standard ethical issues such as protection of copyrights.

Ethics is also necessary in observing confidentiality in data collection, recognition of other

authors’ contributions to your study, observing privacy of respondents or subjects and informed
consent. It is therefore important to recognize areas of your study where you may be accused of
plagiarism or cheating.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
After going through this section, you should be able to:
 Observe standard referencing procedures in research writing.
 Appreciate the values of moral concerns, informed consent, confidentiality and privacy.
 Be aware of dangers of plagiarism.

Plagiarism
Ideas, and the words that express those ideas, are the valuables of scholarship. The people who
create them have a right to receive credit for them. When one person appropriates the ideas or text
of another person and presents them as his or her own, it is theft. The technical term is plagiarism,
but it is theft, and the ethics of scholarship make no provision for petty crime - it is all grand theft.
Yes, grey areas exists where ideas, phrases, and even entire ways of thinking about things pass
into the public domain where acknowledging their origin is no longer obligatory. And yes, the
distinction between a paraphrase in your words and one that derives too much from the original
author is a judgments call. For problems of that kind, we leave you to other resources – and your
conscience.
What we are talking about here is thievery, and that includes failure to use quotation marks where
they belong, omitting citation that credit material found in someone else’s work, shoddy
carelessness in preparing the list of references, and failure to obtain permission for the use of
figures, tables, or even illustration from another document – whether published or not. In each of
those, doing the right thing does not involve knowing the niceties of custom or the precise reading
of an obscure rule. You know exactly what is ethical without any coaching.
All you need to remember is what your mother said: “Don’t cheat!” If you need more motivation
than that, you might consider the proposition that it is prudent to treat the property of others as you
hope they will treat yours by doing the following:
 Providing all the facts is extremely important: the purpose of the proposal is to help you
and other people understand what you plan to do.
 Manufacturing the facts is scholastically criminal: collect data, not create it; interpret the
available data, not tamper with it to make it appear what it is not.
  Use the data you collected, use it correctly, and tell the reader exactly what you did.
 Avoid the temptation to ignore recording the precautions you were unable to take even if
it was inadvertently done.
 The discussion, interpretation, conclusions and recommendations, all should be truly based
on your findings.
 REMEMBER: The choice to do the right thing can be inconvenient, expensive and even
painful: no investigator, no matter how experienced, would claim that research is a Rose
Garden.
The research project should always remain in the realms of a sound ethical study. The researcher
should address several ethical considerations before and during the research project. Individuals
who use research should determine if the findings being reported were ethical and accurate. This
refers mainly to the theme of objectivity and the absence of personal bias in the collection, analysis,
and interpretation of the data. Researcher’s should make scientific observations with a minimum
of bias and still remain socially responsible [Kathuri and pals, 1993]

Activity
Think of an explanation for the usefulness of ethics in research and state it before you proceed.

We think that the purpose of considering ethical issues in research is to protect human rights and
privacy from being infringed on by scientific experimentation and to safeguard the credibility of
research and the investigators. You as a student of research, in your pursuit of knowledge should
consider human rights.

Specific Ethical Issues Related To Research:

Informed consent
Researchers must ensure that informed consent, freely given by the participant, is obtained for
every research project involving people. Research carried out without such consent is usually
considered infringement on and exposure of participants’ personal rights and welfare. Consent for
children and mentally sick persons should be sought from the parents or the guardians. There
should be neither undue influence nor conditions before giving consent; for example, promising
rewards or threatening withdrawal of benefits.
Remember that you can be sued in court if you violate the rights of respondents or misuse the
findings of your research
Diener and Crandall, (1978) have defined informed consent as; “the procedures which individuals
choose whether to participate in an investigation after being informed of the facts that would be
likely to influence their decisions”.

However, it must also be noted that there are some research methods where it is impossible to seek
informed consent. For example, convert observation or experimental techniques involving
deception. There are also occasions when problems arise even though consent has been obtained.
Guidelines for informed consent
The first ethical issue is informed consent
According to Cohen Manion and Morrison (2000) the following are some of the guidelines for
reasonably informed consent:

 A fair explanation of the procedures to be followed and their purposes.

 A description of the respondents discomforts and risks to be expected.
 A description of the benefits reasonably to be expected.
 A disclosure of appropriate alternative procedures that might be advantageous to the
participants.
 An offer to answer any inquiries concerning the procedures.
 An instruction that the participant is free to withdraw consent and to discontinue
participation in the project at any time without prejudice to the participant.
The second issue is moral
This states that no experimental procedure involving some risk to a human being is permissible if
one involving less risk is available and only when such a procedure is likely to bring better results
than other alternatives available. In medical sciences or in controlled clinical trials, research on
new drugs can be conducted, but must avoid unnecessary risk and suffering, whether mental or
physical. The researcher should never withhold a procedure of proven value from one group and
give it to another in his trials. All participants need to be treated equally.
The third ethical issue is confidentiality and privacy
Activity
Give a personal definition of confidentiality and state why it is an important ethical issue in
research.

We have defined confidentiality “as the art and ability of the investigator to protect and keep secret
the participants’ shared information unless consent is granted.” How does this definition compare
with yours?
Kimmel (1988) cited in Cohen Manion and Morrison(2000) notes that one general finding that
emerges from the empirical literature is that same potential respondents in research on sensitive
topics will refuse to cooperate when an assurance of confidentiality is weak, vague, not understood,
or thought likely to be breached.
Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias(1992) have listed a number of techniques that have been
developed to allow public access to data and information without confidentiality being betrayed.
Two examples are given herein:
 Deletion of names, addresses, and any other means of identification from the data released
on individuals.
 Crude report categories, for example, releasing the year of birth rather than the specified
date, the profession but not the specialty within that profession, general information rather
than specific.
Activity
Think about what you would do to protect participants’ identification while you release the data.
Add to the list

The fourth ethical issue is physical or psychological harm: A researcher should never undertake
research that may cause physical or psychological harm. For example, asking embarrassing
questions, expressing shock or disgust while collecting data, using threats and compelling people
to say what they do not believe in or causing fear and anxiety among respondents, may cause
psychological harm.
Mugenda and Mugenda (1999) state that any statement or action, which lowers a subject’s self-
esteem or self-worth, is also considered unethical and should always be avoided. Causing
discomfort and resentment by forcing respondents to recall traumatic experiences is also
psychologically harmful.

The fifth ethical issue focuses on use of vulnerable and special populations
These include children, the poor and mentally sick people. It is considered extremely unethical if
people who are disadvantaged in one way or another are used without their consent or the consent
of a guardian. Permission must be sought from those who care for these special populations, so
that there is informed consent.
Activity
Give reasons why there is a great concern for special populations

The sixth ethical issue is to do with dissemination of findings

How do you intend to let the findings of your research project be known to the relevant consumers?
How might the procedure you use be unethical? Let us now see what other researchers have to
day.
First, it is unethical to conceal findings after completion of research. For example, a researcher
may fail to reveal research findings if they are likely to affect certain policies negatively or an
institution may keep the results, which are likely to bring protests. Besides being unethical, it is a
waste of time, money and energy to undertake research only to conceal findings. Therefore, for
sensitive findings, methods of releasing them should be agreed upon rather than shelving the
findings completely.
Do you intend to publish your research findings? If you do, then you should be aware of intellectual
property rights. This simply means consulting the other team members in case the research was
done jointly by a team of researchers. No one individual has the right to publish the study as a
personal effort so that every person’s intellectual contribution is fairly recognized
 Ethical issues in experimental designs
You have probably conducted laboratory experiments while in secondary school. It entails control
and treatment groups to provide meaningful comparisons. When dealing with human beings, same
experts have seen the differential treatment among control and treatment groups as unfair and
unethical. For example, the treatment interventions could be training or provision of medicine to
the experimental group while the control group is denied the treatment. This helps in making
conclusions about the effect of treatment on the group with a clear indication from a comparison
with the untreated (control) group. Any difference would be as a result of the treatment. However,
such kind of research studies are conducted, where the control group can be given the same
treatment after the study if resources allow, or if not, the candid explanation must be offered to the
control group by the researcher, to help alleviate the feeling of unfairness” [Mugenda and
Mugenda, 1999; Gall; Borg; and Gall, 1996]
The seventh ethical issue is the use of tests in research
Many participants develop extreme anxiety during tests or any kind of examinations. Some experts
have argued that it is unethical to subject respondents to tests due to discomfort and anxiety
experienced. In this regard, it is the researcher’s responsibility to select a method for data
collection that is fairly free of anxiety. If tests are the best method to use in a particular study, the
researcher should prepare the respondents for the anticipated experience and reassure them.
Activity
You have been asked by your District Education Board (DEB) to undertake research on HIV/AIDS
behavioural change among secondary school students in Kenya. Discuss some of the resources
that you will need and outline five (5) ethical considerations that you would bear in mind.

Conclusion
Research must be conducted within an ethical framework. The researcher must not only understand
what ethical issues but also put them into practice in his /her research. One must desist from any
actions that could be termed deceitful. Such actions not only reflect badly on the researcher but could
also lead the readers into assuming that whatever else is contained in a research report is
questionable.

Ethical issues protect the researcher as well as the population that she /he will work with in data
collection.

Review questions:
Ask yourself the following questions with reference to your research study:
 Does the study in any way suggest an unreasonable compromise of any principle or value or
place any of the subjects in the study at risk?
 What safeguards will be there to protect the rights of those involved in the study?
 Does the proposal clearly specify the obligations and responsibilities of all participating?
 How will informed consent be obtained from study participants?