Ethical Considerations in Social Research

This course will equip participants with a clear understanding of key ethical principles in social research, and how to apply them to research that includes primary data collection. Participants will explore ethical considerations throughout the lifecycle of primary research projects – from design to publication and dissemination. Participants will also gain experience offering ethics advice and review to research projects, and making safeguarding and disclosure decisions in fictional scenarios.

Topics Covered

• The importance of ethics in social research, and key ethical principles.
• Ethical considerations across the lifecycle of social research projects: at the design, recruitment, data collection, analysis and reporting stages.
• Risks to researcher safety and wellbeing.
• Practical considerations when providing ethics guidance.
• Practical considerations when making decisions to disclose confidential information.

Learning Outcomes

• Be able to describe key ethical principles in social research.
• Be able to identify and manage potential ethical issues and risks to potential participants and groups to which they belong at the research design and recruitment stages.
• Be able to identify and manage potential ethical issues and risks to participants at the data collection, analysis and reporting stages.
• Be able to identify and manage potential risks to researchers throughout the stages of primary research projects.
• Have gained experience of scrutinising ethics in social research projects.
• Have gained experience of considering when to disclose confidential information, and why.

Target Audience

This introductory course will encourage reflection on previous practice, and will particularly benefit researchers who already have some understanding and experience of designing and/or conducting research projects that involve primary data collection.

Cost

This course is offered at discounted rates for students, academic, public sector and research staff through our partnership with the University of Southampton.

£35 for UK registered postgraduate students.

£75 for staff at UK/EU academic institutions, UK/EU Research Councils/UKRI Researchers, UK/EU public sector staff, UK/EU registered charity organisations and recognised UK/EU research institutions.

£250 for all other participants.