A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social scientists
The Federal Register is surely not everybody’s bedtime reading. It is where the US Government formally publishes certain official documents, […]
Four years in the making, a proposed version of the federal ‘Common Rule’ for research on human subjects includes a full suite of social and behavioral science-influenced directives that past versions of the rule lacked.
The US tortured prisoners in the ‘War on Terror.’ That that a major health care association colluded in this, argues J. Wesley Boyd, is unconscionable.
Imagine an ethics review system where the researcher’s proposal is read by an ‘ethics jury’ of four to six researchers drawn, as in legal juries, from the academic population at large, suggests Australia’s Gigi Foster.
Writing about her experiences in Australia, Gigi Foster wonders if ethics boards are more interested in ticking the necessary boxes and not upholding the standards that supposedly underlie the boards’ existence.
High-quality scientific literature is the cornerstone of scientific progress and is highly regarded by academia. However, Ritesh G. Menezes and his colleagues write in the Medico-Legal Journal, scientific literature is often marred by plagiarism, data fabrication and falsification, redundant publication and illegitimate authorship.
Looking specifically at Australia, the author of the book on research integrity wonders how rampant plagiarizing and fabricating may be among researchers.
The author of a book on research ethics for social scientists suggests that issues such as antagonism with university review boards and new complexities introduced by Big Data can make integrity a sometime elusive quality.
The political science journal Comparative Political Studies is experimenting for one special issue in which articles will be judged based on reviewers’ evaluations of what authors intend to do rather than what they report as their findings.
A study of the 100 top journals in education research found that there’s still almost no effort made to replicate the findings they publish.
What does the Facebook emotional contagion study really tells us about research ethics? Perhaps, argues Robert Dingwall, that its time to deregulate public social science.
After promising research subjects anonymity, a compelling reason — and the state’s compulsion — pushes us to renege on the promise. is that a mortal sin or a venal transgression? Mark Israel argues that sometimes it’s a necessary evil.
