Do violations of basic ethical principles in research invalidate the results of a study?
I'm working on an ethics workshop for MSc-level anthropology students on the topic of 'Ethics in the Research of Contemporary Populations'. The question posted here will appear at the end of the class, and I would love to show the students as many answers as possible from scientists. Additionally, if the responses demonstrate significant interest, I will consider public dissemination on social media, so please reply anonymously.
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3 Answers
Ahmed Rebai
This depends on what you mean by basic ethical principles. If you refer to scientific integrity (honesty and transparency) in reporting results, data fabrication of falsification, cherry picking, p-hacking .. these are definitely practices that should invalidate the results of a study. However, if you are talking about ethical principles related to the gathering and use of personal and sensitive data (as defined for example by GDPR), such as violation of privacy and not considering respect for communities, these do not invalidate the results but it is failure in considering ethical and legal issues in the study and if the results are to be published this is problem!
Boffer Bings
Ideally, yes— but unfortunately, "basic ethical principles" doesn't invoke any particular codification. If you can reference a relevant professional society's established ethical code, then yes, that's what it's for, at least insofar as a given author identifies as a member of that society.
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