A few numbers of major ethical principles should be considered when conducting a research study. These ethical principles stress on the need of beneficence and do no harm or non-malfeasance. In research guidelines, these ethical principles mean that as a researcher, you need to: (1) minimize risk of harm to the participants (2) obtain informed consent from potential research participants (3) protect their anonymity and confidentiality (4) avoid using deceptive practices (5) give participants the right to withdraw from the research 1) MINIMISING THE RISK OF HARMResearch study should be not harm the participants. The possibility that participants could be harmed or been in a discomfort condition, there must be strong justifications for this. Such scenarios will also require an additional planning to illustrate how discomfort condition will be reduced, informed consent and detailed debriefing.2) OBTAINING INFORMED CONSENTInformed consent means that participants should understand that they are taking part in research and what the research requires from them. Such information may include the purpose of the research, the method being used, the possible outcomes of the research, as well as associated demands, discomforts, inconveniences and risks that the participants may face.
Another component of informed consent , the participants should be volunteers, taking part without have been forced and deceived. 3) PROTECTING ANONYMITY AND CONFIDENTIALITYProtecting the anonymity and confidentiality of research participants is practical component in research ethics. Participants usually will being to volunteer in giving information, especially information of a private or sensitive nature, if the researcher agrees to hold such information in confidence. It is possible that research participants may be hurt in some way if the data collection methods used are somehow insensitive, there is perhaps a greater danger that harm can be happened once data has been collected. This occurs when data is not treated appropriately, whether in terms of the storage of data, analysis or during the submission process. An alternatively is to remove identifiers such as vernacular terms, names, geographical cues or provide proxies when writing the research.Therefore, we need to consider the way on how to overcoming the problems, such as aggregating datas in tables and setting rules to ensure a minimum number of units are reviewed before data/information can be presented.
4) AVOIDING DECEPTIVE PRACTICESIn the first sight, deceptive practices fly in the face of informed consent. After all, how can participants notice that they are taking part in research and what the research requires of them if they are being deceived. This is part of what makes the use of deceptive practices controversial.
For this reason, in most circumstances, research study should be avoid from any kinds of deceptive practices. 5) PROVIDING THE RIGHT TO WITHDRAWWith the exception of those instances of covert observation where is not feasible to let everyone that is being observed know what you are doing, research participants should always have the right to withdraw from the research process. Furthermore, participants should have the right to withdraw at any stage in the research process. When a participant chooses to withdraw from the research process, they should not be pressured or forced in any way to try and stop them from withdrawing
