IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v21y2016i4p16-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reframing Research Ethics: Towards a Professional Ethics for the Social Sciences

Author

Listed:
  • Nathan Emmerich

Abstract

This article is premised on the idea that were we able to articulate a positive vision of the social scientist's professional ethics, this would enable us to reframe social science research ethics as something internal to the profession. As such, rather than suffering under the imperialism of a research ethics constructed for the purposes of governing biomedical research, social scientists might argue for ethical self-regulation with greater force. I seek to provide the requisite basis for such an ‘ethics’ by, first, suggesting that the conditions which gave rise to biomedical research ethics are not replicated within the social sciences. Second, I argue that social science research can be considered as the moral equivalent of the ‘true professions.’ Not only does it have an ultimate end, but it is one that is – or, at least, should be – shared by the state and society as a whole. I then present a reading of confidentiality as a methodological – and not simply ethical – aspect of research, one that offers further support for the view that social scientists should attend to their professional ethics and the internal standards of their disciplines, rather than the contemporary discourse of research ethics that is rooted in the bioethical literature. Finally, and by way of a conclusion, I consider the consequences of the idea that social scientists should adopt a professional ethics and propose that the Clinical Ethics Committee might provide an alternative model for the governance of social science research.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathan Emmerich, 2016. "Reframing Research Ethics: Towards a Professional Ethics for the Social Sciences," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 16-29, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:21:y:2016:i:4:p:16-29
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.4127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.4127
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.4127?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martyn Hammersley, 2010. "Creeping Ethical Regulation and the Strangling of Research," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(4), pages 123-125, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hélder Raposo & Sara Melo & Catarina Egreja, 2022. "Data Protection in Sociological Health Research: A Critical Narrative about the Challenges of a New Regulatory Landscape," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 1060-1076, December.
    2. Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi & David Whyte, 2018. "Researching the Powerful: A Call for the Reconstruction of Research Ethics," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(1), pages 136-152, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hélder Raposo & Sara Melo & Catarina Egreja, 2022. "Data Protection in Sociological Health Research: A Critical Narrative about the Challenges of a New Regulatory Landscape," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 1060-1076, December.
    2. Guta, Adrian & Nixon, Stephanie A. & Wilson, Michael G., 2013. "Resisting the seduction of “ethics creep”: Using Foucault to surface complexity and contradiction in research ethics review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 301-310.
    3. Nathan Emmerich, 2012. "Book Review: Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965-2009," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 17(2), pages 1-3, May.
    4. Margaret Melrose, 2011. "Regulating Social Research: Exploring the Implications of Extending Ethical Review Procedures in Social Research," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(2), pages 49-58, June.
    5. Bama Andika Putra, 2023. "Complexities of the Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative International Relations Research: Research Subjects, Ethical Codes, and Constructing Qualitative Rigor," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:21:y:2016:i:4:p:16-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.