Abstract
At the beginning of the 21st century, issues concerning the social sciences research design and data collection are dominant. However, social scientists have found some remedies for the pitfalls of post-graduate and graduate students. Although the authors have found published literature at internationally recognized data-based publishers, very little literature reviewed undergraduates in the faculty of social sciences. The purpose of this chapter is to empower undergraduates, and to guide them in research ethics, particularly in the social sciences. Undergraduate students or supervisors who deal with social sciences research ensure to follow the precautions of the ethical principles to increase the benefits of the research for society and country development at large. Overall, undergraduate students need to understand the problem which systematically can be resolved through research. Moreover, in data collection sampling must be identified properly.
TopIntroduction
Over the last two centuries, considerable advances in social sciences research. To do ethically good research is a key principle of scientific research. The scientific research methods and observations have shown unethical ways of research (Hosseini, Wieczorek, & Gordijn, 2022). Besides this, ethical considerations and related issues that emerged in dissertations are not adequately addressed (Kjellstrom, et al. 2010). Ethical issues concerning social sciences research are dominant (Bernard A Fischer, 2006).
However, social scientists have found some remedies for the pitfalls of research ethics and ethical issues related to undergrad and post-graduate students. we have found in published literature at internationally recognized data-based publishers, very little literature was reviewed regarding undergraduates in the social sciences.
The purpose of this chapter is to empower and guide undergrads students in research ethical principles, particularly in social sciences research. This chapter will describe the ethical principles and issues faced by undergrads in social sciences research.
This chapter will be written according to the following sub-headings:
Sub-head 1: Ethical principles among undergrad students in social sciences research based on dissertation or project.
Sub-head 2: To focus on ethical issues faced by undergrads students in social sciences research.
Undergrad students are the primary researchers, who apply the research techniques at the initial stage of their dissertation or project. The most vital approach is to improve research ethics instruction in graduate school (Kjellström, Ross, & Fridlund, 2010).Students must learn how to conduct ethically sound research from the first stages of planning and execution to writing up the results, and their potential and ability to report and reflect on ethical aspects of the research process must be strengthened (Kjellström, & Fridlund, 2010).Undergrad students usually perform a thesis or project in the final year of the graduate programs in many varsities of the world. Most of the time, they do not determine the ethics in research, particularly in the field of social sciences. Additionally, their fundamental concepts are unclear despite learning fundamentals of research in the sixth and seventh semesters of the graduate program; such as ‘fundamentals of research in social sciences’. However, supervisors play a vital role in the practices of the ethical principles in the dissertation.
Research ethics is the application of an ethical set of principles and professional codes of conduct in the collection of data, analysis, reporting, and publication of research (Cox, et al., 2023). There is a professional ethical principle for researchers particularly in the field of social science (APA, 2016). Professional ethical research frequently establishes guidelines for researchers in social sciences (Cannella, & Lincoln, 2011). Ethical principles implemented by each university’s research board of studies. However, undergrads students, supervisors, and scientists also undertake ethical standards of research contribution in worldwide research communities. To meet the quality of social scientific research, undergrads students must not misinterpret the processes used for research methodology, data gathering, and analysis to fulfill research objectives and their goals.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ethical Principles: ‘Ethical principles are useful, so long as they are treated as reminders of what ought to be taken into account, rather than as premises from which specific ethical judgments can be derived’ (Martyn Hammersley, 2015 ).
Plagiarism: The online Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition of plagiarism is as follows: “To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s one: use (another’s production) without crediting the source”.
Anonymity: ‘Anonymity is guaranteed in a research project when neither the researchers nor the readers of the findings can link a given response with a given respondent’ ( Babbie, 2020 ).
Data Collection: ‘Reports of the observed collection’ ( Smith, 1988 ).
Debriefing: ‘Interviewing subjects to learn about their experience of participation in the project and to inform them of any unrevealed purpose. This is especially important if there is a possibility that they have been damaged by that participation’ ( Babbie, 2020 ).
Confidentiality: ‘A research project guarantees confidentiality when the researcher can identify a given person’s responses but promises not to do so publicly’ ( Babbie, 2020 ).
Ethics: Refers to ‘an evolving system of behavioral norms or value judgments about the goodness or badness of research practice’ ( Smith, 1988 ).
Chat GPT: ‘ChatGPT is an NLP model developed by Open Artificial Intelligence and was launched in November 2022. ChatGPT emerged as a breakthrough LLM that can generate text and maintain a human-like conversational style’ ( Rahman, &Watanobe, 2023 ).
Justice: people who are equal in relevant ways should be treated equally.
Social Sciences Research: ‘A collection of methodologies that researchers apply systematically to produce scientifically based knowledge about the social world’ (Lawrence, 2006).
Honesty: ‘This is a general cultural norm, but it is especially strong in scientific research. Scientists demand honesty in all research processes. Dishonesty and fabrication in scientific research is a major taboo’ (Lawrence, 2006).
Intellectual Integrity: ‘Intellectual Integrity is valuable not only because of laudable moral qualities but also because it spells out concrete behavior rules to protect the integrity of intellectual inquiry’ ( Smith, 1988 ).
Nonmaleficence: ‘ Do not cause others harm’ ( Kitchener, & Kitchener, 2009 ).
Right to Privacy: ‘The right to privacy is a very important ethical concern for research in this area. Individuals may risk of their jobs, having family difficulties, or being ostracized by peers if certain facets of their sexual lives are revealed. Violation of the right to privacy occurs when certain data or information is covertly observed. In most cases, the right to privacy is maintained by researchers, such as survey research. Self-administered questions can be anonymous, and interviews can be confidential’ ( Babbie, 2020 ).
Deception in Research: ‘Deception broadly means the use of deliberately misleading communication with participants about research purposes or activities’ (The University of Arizona, Research Innovation & Impact, 2022).
Beneficence: ‘A positive commitment to remove existing harm and provide benefits to others’ ( Wimmer, & Dominick, 2013 ).