From the following list of statements identify the set which has negative…
2016
From the following list of statements identify the set which has negative implications for ‘research ethics’ : (i) A researcher critically looks at the findings of another research. (ii) Related studies are cited without proper references. (iii) Research findings are made the basis for policy making. (iv) Conduct of practitioner is screened in terms of reported research evidences. (v) A research study is replicated with a view to verify the evidences from other researches. (vi) Both policy making and policy implementing processes are regulated in terms of preliminary studies. Codes :
Answer: C. (ii), (iv) and (vi) — Concept. Research ethics governs how evidence is produced, how it is attributed, and how far it may be pushed once it exists. Two obligations sit at its core:…
- A.
(i), (ii) and (iii)
- B.
(ii), (iii) and (iv)
- C.
(ii), (iv) and (vi)
- D.
(i), (iii) and (v)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept. Research ethics governs how evidence is produced, how it is attributed, and how far it may be pushed once it exists. Two obligations sit at its core:
Attribution. Every idea, finding or argument borrowed from another work must carry a proper reference, because an unreferenced borrowing denies the original author credit and leaves the reader no verifiable trail back to the source.
Proportionate use. A finding may support only the conclusions its evidence base can actually bear, since research evidence is aggregate, probabilistic and context-bound.
A practice therefore has negative implications for research ethics when it withholds attribution or pushes evidence past what that evidence licenses; scrutiny, replication and evidence-informed decision-making are, by contrast, the normal and desirable machinery of a discipline.
Applying the two obligations, statement by statement.
Statement | Bearing on research ethics |
|---|---|
(i) A researcher critically looks at the findings of another research. | Critical appraisal of prior work is the normal machinery of scholarship and is how a field detects error and corrects itself. Neither obligation is touched. |
(ii) Related studies are cited without proper references. | The borrowing is made but the attribution is withheld, so the original authors go uncredited and the reader is left with no verifiable trail to the source. The attribution obligation is breached. |
(iii) Research findings are made the basis for policy making. | Feeding completed research into policy is the intended social return on that research. Nothing is misattributed and nothing is carried past its evidence. |
(iv) Conduct of practitioner is screened in terms of reported research evidences. | Reported findings are aggregate and context-bound, so turning them into an instrument for judging one individual practitioner's conduct applies group-level evidence to a case it was never designed to decide, with direct consequences for that person. Proportionate use is exceeded. |
(v) A research study is replicated with a view to verify the evidences from other researches. | Replication is the discipline's designated verification mechanism and is actively encouraged. Neither obligation is touched. |
(vi) Both policy making and policy implementing processes are regulated in terms of preliminary studies. | Preliminary studies are exploratory and not yet validated, so binding both the framing and the execution of policy to them rests consequential decisions on an evidence base that cannot yet carry them. Proportionate use is exceeded. |
Cross-check. The statements that breach an obligation are (ii), (iv) and (vi), and the ethically sound ones are (i), (iii) and (v). Testing that against the sets on offer: the set (i), (ii) and (iii) and the set (ii), (iii) and (iv) each pull one or two of the sound statements in alongside the problem ones, and the set (i), (iii) and (v) is made up entirely of sound practices. Only one set collects all three problem statements and admits none of the sound ones.
Result. The set with negative implications for research ethics is (ii), (iv) and (vi).