HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE AND CONDUCT ETHICAL STUDIESThere are few rules for locating the best sites on
the Internet that have useful and truthful informa-
tion. Sources that originate at universities, research
institutes, or government agencies usually are more
trustworthy for research purposes than ones that
are individual home pages of unspecified origin or
location or that a commercial organization or a
political/social issue advocacy group sponsors. In
addition to moving or disappearing, many Web
pages or sources fail to provide complete informa-
tion to make citation easy. Quality sources provide
fuller or more complete information about the author,
date, location, and so on.
ETHICS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH
We now turn to a second major concern that you
need to address before designing a study. Social
research has an ethical-moral dimension, although,
different approaches to science address the values
issue differently. All approaches recognize the eth-
ical dimension to research. It is difficult to appre-
ciate fully the ethical dilemmas until you are doing
research, but waiting until the middle of doing a
study is too late. You need to prepare and consider
ethical concerns as you design a study so you can
build sound ethical practice into the design.
Codes of ethics and other researchers provide
guidance, but ethical conduct ultimately depends on
an individual researcher. You have a moral and pro-
fessional obligation to be ethical even when research
participants are unaware of or unconcerned about
ethics. Indeed, many participants are little concerned
about protecting their privacy and other rights.^4
The ethical issues are the concerns, dilemmas,
and conflicts that arise over the proper way to con-
duct research. Ethics defines what is or is not legit-
imate to do or what “moral” research procedure
involves. There are few ethical absolutes but there
are many agreed-on principles. These principles
may conflict in practice. Many ethical issues
require you to balance two values: the pursuit of
scientific knowledge and the rights of those being
studied or of others in society. You must weigh
potential benefits—such as advancing the under-
standing of social life, improving decision making,
or helping research participants— against potential
costs—such as a loss of dignity, self-esteem, pri-
vacy, or democratic freedoms.
Ethical standards for doing research can be
stricter than standards in many organizations (e.g.,
collection agencies, police departments, advertisers).
Professional social research requires that you both
know proper research techniques (e.g., sampling) and
be sensitive to ethical concerns in research.The Individual Researcher
Ethics begins and ends with you, the researcher.
Your personal moral code is the best defense against
unethical behavior. Before, during, and after con-
ducting a study, you will have opportunities to and
shouldreflect on research actions and consult your
conscience. Ethical research depends on the integrity
and values of individual researchers. “If values are
to be taken seriously, they cannot be expressed and
laid aside but must instead be guides to actions for
the sociologist. They determine who will be inves-
tigated, for what purpose and in whose service”
(Sagarin, 1973:63).Reasons for Being Ethical
Because most people who conduct social research
are genuinely concerned about others, why would
a researcher act in an ethically irresponsible man-
ner? Except for the rare disturbed individual, the
causes of most unethical behavior result from a lack
of awareness and pressures to take ethical shortcuts.
Many researchers face intense pressures to build a
career, publish, advance knowledge, gain prestige,
impress family and friends, hold on to a job, and so
forth. Ethical research takes longer to complete,
costs more money, is more complicated, and is more
likely to end before completion. Moreover, written
ethical standards are in the form of vague principles.
In many situations, it is possible to act unethically,
and the odds of getting caught are small.
Also, no one rewards you for being ethical and
doing the right thing. The unethical researcher, if
caught, faces public humiliation, a ruined career,
and possible legal action, but the ethical researcher
wins no praise. Most researchers internalize ethical