SLE761 Research Planning And Communication

Answer:

Introduction

An ethical norm as a way of not causing harm is learnt at school or church or in other social setting (Gillan & Pickerill, 2012). While the moral conduct of deciding upon the right or the wrong is learnt during the human life, individuals interpret and apply them according to their understanding, values and through experiences. Ethics can be defined as a code of conduct that governs behaviours. Almost every profession, discipline, activities have their set of ethical principles that matches their goals. Similarly ethical conduct applies in the area of research as well (Oliver, 2010). Ethical principles application ensures promotion of knowledge, truth and in avoiding errors such as fabricating or falsification or misrepresentation.           

Importance of Research Ethics

The role of ethics is considerable in research, as research requires coordinating and cooperating between varied different institutions, people and disciplines, ethical principles aids in collaboration. Ethical principles of accountability, trust, fairness and mutual respect ensures conducting such research (Alderson & Morrow, 2011). Various ethical norms within research which promotes protection of intellectual property while collaborating, includes patenting policies, copyright, authorship, peer review and so on. In the case of research undertaken for Assignment 3, the topic of Plastic Pollution of destroying Corals in Great Barrier Reef, ethical norms will have tremendous considerations. In the research topic, I will need to coordinate between Ocean Scientists department, local community and government data (Resnik, 2011). While dealing with enormous volumes of information, I need to ensure that there is no falsification of data and the true picture can be represented with utmost fairness. All names of participants within the research will be kept confidential, and they will be explained regarding the research with its possible impacts prior to their taking part in the study. There will be no coercion on any participant to undertake part in the study (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010).      

Ethical norms hold the researcher accountable to public, this is essential for scientific research which has impact on general public. Most important role of ethical norm in research is that it allows building public support in research. Funding for a research project can be raised in case the public considers the research to be integral and having social value (Faden, Kass, Goodman, Pronovost, Tunis & Beauchamp, 2013). Lastly, ethics in research is able to promote varied types of social and moral values, which can be seen as human rights, animal welfare and similar other topic areas.    

Ethics Monitoring Australia 

Importance of ethics in research cannot be overstated; hence there are pertinent guidelines that promote research integrity (RI) within Australia (Brown & Mitchell, 2010). As the scope of my study is within Australia, I will be considering the various guidelines which need to be followed in Australia. In Australia, the Research Integrity (RI) guideline is decided by the Commonwealth. It is done by means of NHMRC, Australian Universities and ARC. These guidelines are a must in cases of all Commonwealth funded organizations and its general responsibilities are well-defined in the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018). Its general principles include promotion of honesty and integrity, good stewardship regarding usage of public resources. It also includes respect for human research participants, environment and animals. It encompasses acknowledging other’s role within the scope of the research. For my project apart from this guideline, I will need to get approval for Biosafety and Biosecurity along with Human Research Ethics. Legal issues that I will need to deal with will include Sponsorship and contracts, the subsequently privacy laws according to Privacy Act 1988. I will need to obtain Data Management authorship according to the Australian code by applying for Responsibilities of Institutions (R8).   

Key Ethical Issues

While ethics is considered to be important in research, a scholar’s role is to ensure key ethical areas that might come up during the course of the study. In the study selected by me, Plastic Pollution in Great Barrier Reef, I have been able to understand key ethical challenge that I might face. Some of the areas include, data protection, preserving confidentiality, coordinating amongst departments and getting funded for my study (Hollway, 2018). Discussing each challenge can reveal in-depth nature of the causes. Dealing with crucial and critical data such as marine and corals lost within specific time period, amount of plastic entering ocean and other critical data can easily be stolen. Though I will aim at protecting them, but while data sharing such crucial information has chances of getting lost or even tampered. The topic I will deal with can be regarded as a hot topic as there is significant amount of earning from tourism and fishing activity in the Great Barrier Reef. The research needs to collect data from varied sources, while explaining the topic to participants, there remains a possibility that the confidentiality of the project might be lost. When I am conducting my study, I need to ensure that these key ethical concerns can be mitigated and handled in an appropriate manner by me.  

Conclusion

Ethics play a major role in research and scholars needs to adhere to ethical guidelines while conducting their research. Every country and discipline has their own sets of ethical conduct and guidelines that has to be followed, to ensure that no ethical challenges are faced. Research Integrity allows scholars to take into knowledge any ethical concern that might arise in the process of conducting research, the devising strategies to overcome them.    

Reference Lists

Alderson, P. and Morrow, V., 2011. The ethics of research with children and young people: A practical handbook. Sage Publications Ltd. Referred on 11^th August 2018 from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ozX2i1u71isC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=importance+of+ethics+in+research&ots=WwG7nzYo65&sig=CuqDtxLhzA41cFMw5eYzvc5ZgCY#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20ethics%20in%20research&f=false  

Brown, M.E. and Mitchell, M.S., 2010. Ethical and unethical leadership: Exploring new avenues for future research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(4), pp.583-616. Referred on 18^th August 2018 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-ethics-quarterly/article/ethical-and-unethical-leadership-exploring-new-avenues-for-future-research/073D6C535E7D86680F9C15E3E95C9E9D  

Faden, R.R., Kass, N.E., Goodman, S.N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S. and Beauchamp, T.L., 2013. An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional research ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1), pp.S16-S27. Referred on 8^th August 2018 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hast.134  

Gillan, K. and Pickerill, J., 2012. The difficult and hopeful ethics of research on, and with, social movements. Social Movement Studies, 11(2), pp.133-143. Referred on 5^th August 2018 from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2012.664890 

Hollway, W., 2018. The importance of relational thinking in the practice of psycho-social research: Ontology, epistemology, methodology, and ethics. In Object relations and social relations (pp. 137-161). Routledge. Referred on 2^nd September 2018 from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429902437/chapters/10.4324%2F9780429477669-7  

McMillan, J.H. and Schumacher, S., 2010. Research in Education: Evidence-Based Inquiry, MyEducationLab Series. Pearson. Referred on 20^th August 2018 from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED577250  

Oliver, P., 2010. The student's guide to research ethics. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Referred on 30^th August 2018 from  https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WIuNij1aGtoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=importance+of+ethics+in+research&ots=hKSBVh-zPg&sig=aB1dlAPUfKuYN8lOSBt_0rWmRjo#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20ethics%20in%20research&f=false

Resnik, D.B., 2011. What is ethics in research & why is it important. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, pp.1-10. Referred on 28^th August 2018 from   https://www.veronaschools.org/cms/lib02/NJ01001379/Centricity/Domain/588/What%20is%20Ethics%20in%20Research%20Why%20is%20it%20Important.pdf