The Research Ethics Guidebook

The Research Ethics Guidebook is designed as a resource for social science researchers - those early in their careers, as well as more experienced colleagues.  It aims to help you find your way through the variety of regulatory processes and procedures that can apply to social science research - signposting you to more detailed information along the way, and acting as a prompt for reflection and questioning at all stages of the research process. You might use it for:

• Your own research...  To help you write a research proposal, apply for ethics approval, or deal with ethics dilemmas that arise during a project.
• Undergraduate studies...  As a resource for students, for research methods assignments or as a basis for tutorial discussions, or in carrying out undergraduate research projects.
• Research supervision ...  To help your student negotiate ethics at different stages of the research process, and as a tool for reflecting on your responsibilities in relation to ethics in student research.
• Staff development...   For training of ethics committee members or research supervisors.

Ways of using the website

• The left hand menu has information relating to different stages of the research process.
• Click on the ethics principles icon on the right, to see how different aspects of your research relate to the six ethics principles set out in the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics.
• Click on Permission and approval:  Key Questions to go straight to the area of the site that will advise you on the permission and approval you need to carry out research with different groups.
• To gather information specific to your project, visit the sitemap, where you can compile and print different sections of the site.
• Do a key word search, using the search box in the top right hand corner of the screen.

We aim to continue to improve the Research Ethics Guidebook and would be very grateful if you could take five minutes to to complete a short anonymous online survey.  Thank you.