Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

FIGURE 3 Typology of Legal and Moral

Actions in Social Research

Scientific misconduct Action of someone who

engages in research fraud, plagiarism, or other uneth-

ical conduct that significantly deviates from the accepted

practices for conducting and reporting research estab-

lished by the scientific community.

HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE AND CONDUCT ETHICAL STUDIES

behavior during professional training, while having
a professional role, and from having personal con-
tact with other researchers. Moreover, the scientific
community’s norms of honesty and openness rein-
force ethical behavior. Someone who is genuinely
oriented toward a professional researcher role, who
believes in the scientific ethos, and who interacts
regularly with serious researchers is most likely to
act ethically.

Scientific Misconduct.The research commu-
nity opposes scientific misconduct, which includes
research fraud and plagiarism. Scientific mis-
conductoccurs when a researcher falsifies or dis-
torts the data or the methods of data collection or
plagiarizes the work of others. It also includes sig-
nificant departures from the generally accepted
practices of the scientific community for doing
or reporting on research. Research institutes and
universities have policies and procedures to detect
misconduct, report it to the scientific community
and funding agencies, and penalize researchers
who engage in it (e.g., through a pay cut or loss of
job).^5
Research fraudoccurs when a researcher
fakes or invents data that were not really collected
or falsely reports how research was conducted.
Although rare, it is treated very seriously. The most
famous case of fraud was that of Sir Cyril Burt, the
father of British educational psychology. Burt died
in 1971 as an esteemed researcher who was famous
for his studies with twins that showed a genetic basis
of intelligence. In 1976, it was discovered that he
had falsified data and the names of coauthors.
Unfortunately, the scientific community had been
misled for nearly 30 years.

Plagiarismis fraud that involves someone steal-

ing the ideas or writings of another or using them

without citing the source. A special type of plagia-

rism is stealing the work of another researcher, an

assistant, or a student, and misrepresenting it as one’s

own. These are serious breaches of ethical stan-

dards.^6.

Unethical but Legal.Behavior may be uneth-

ical but not break the law. The distinction between

legal and ethical behavior is illustrated in a plagia-

rism case. The American Sociological Association

documented that a 1988 book without footnotes by

a dean from Eastern New Mexico University con-

tained largesections of a 1978 dissertation written by

a sociology professor at Tufts University. The copy-

ing was not illegal;it did not violate copyright law

because the sociologist’s dissertation did not have a

copyright filed with the U.S. government. Never-

theless, it was clearly unethicalaccording to stan-

dards of professional behavior.^7 (See Figure 3.)

Power

The relationship between a researcher and research

participants involves power and trust. The experi-

menter, survey director, or research investigator has

power relative to participants and assistants. Cre-

dentials, expertise, training, and the role of science

in modern society legitimate the power relation and

trust. Some ethical issues involve an abuse of power

and trust.

A researcher’s authority to conduct research

comes with a responsibility to guide, protect, and

oversee the interests of the people he or she is study-

ing. For example, a physician was discovered to

Research fraud A type of unethical behavior in

which a researcher fakes or creates false data, or falsely

reports on the research procedure.

ETHICAL

LEGAL Ye s N o

Ye s Ethical and legal Legal but unethical

No Illegal but ethical Unethical and illegal