Research ethical guidelines for protection of individuals involved in educational research

ETHICAL STANDARDS OF THE
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

FOREWORD

Educational researchers come from many disciplines, embrace several competing
theoretical frameworks, and use a variety of research methodologies. AERA
recognizes that its members are already guided by codes in the various disciplines
and, also, by organizations such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). AERA's
code of ethics incorporates a set of standards designed specifically to guide the
work of researchers in education. Education, by its very nature, is aimed at the
improvement of individual lives and societies. Further, research in education is
often directed at children and other vulnerable populations. A main objective of
this code is to remind us, as educational researchers, that we should strive to
protect these populations, and to maintain the integrity of our research, of our
research community, and of all those with whom we have professional relations.
We should pledge ourselves to do this by maintaining our own competence and
that of people we induct into the field, by continually evaluating our research for
its ethical and scientific adequacy, and by conducting our internal and external
relations according to the highest ethical standards.

The standards that follow remind us that we are involved not only in
research but in education. It is, therefore, essential that we continually reflect on
our research to be sure that it is not only sound scientifically but that it makes a
positive contribution to the educational enterprise.

I. Guiding Standards: Responsibilities to the Field

A. Preamble. To maintain the integrity of research, educational researchers
should warrant their research conclusions adequately in a way consistent with the
standards of their own theoretical and methodological perspectives. They should
keep themselves well informed in both their own and competing paradigms where
those are relevant to their research, and they should continually evaluate the
criteria of adequacy by which research is judged.

B. Standards
1. Educational researchers should conduct their professional lives in such a
way that they do not jeopardize future research, the public standing of the
field, or the discipline's research results.

2. Educational researchers must not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent
authorship, evidence, data, findings, or conclusions.

3. Educational researchers must not knowingly or negligently use their
professional roles for fraudulent purposes.

4. Educational researchers should honestly and fully disclose their
qualifications and limitations when providing professional opinions to the
public, to government agencies, and others who may avail themselves of
the expertise possessed by members of AERA.

5. Educational researchers should attempt to report their findings to all
relevant stakeholders, and should refrain from keeping secret or
selectively communicating their findings.

6. Educational researchers should report research conceptions, procedures,
results, and analyses accurately and sufficiently in detail to allow
knowledgeable, trained researchers to understand and interpret them.

7. Educational researchers' reports to the public should be written
straightforwardly to communicate the practical significance for policy,
including limits in effectiveness and in generalizability to situations,
problems, and contexts. In writing for or communicating with non-
researchers, educational researchers must take care not to misrepresent
the practical or policy implications of their research or the research of
others.

8. When educational researchers participate in actions related to hiring,
retention, and advancement, they should not discriminate on the basis of
gender, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, marital status, color,
social class, religion, ethnic background, national origin, or other
attributes not relevant to the evaluation of academic or research
competence.

9. Educational researchers have a responsibility to make candid, forthright
personnel recommendations and not to recommend those who are
manifestly unfit.

10. Educational researchers should decline requests to review the work of
others where strong conflicts of interest are involved, or when such
requests cannot be conscientiously fulfilled on time. Materials sent for
review should be read in their entirety and considered carefully, with
evaluative comments justified with explicit reasons.

11. Educational researchers should avoid all forms of harassment, not merely
those overt actions or threats that are due cause for legal action. They
must not use their professional positions or rank to coerce personal or
sexual favors or economic or professional advantages from students,
research assistants, clerical staff, colleagues, or any others.

12. Educational researchers should not be penalized for reporting in good
faith violations of these or other professional standards.

II. Guiding Standards: Research Populations, Educational
Institutions, and the Public

A. Preamble. Educational researchers conduct research within a broad array of
settings and institutions, including schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and
prisons. It is of paramount importance that educational researchers respect the
rights, privacy, dignity, and sensitivities of their research populations and also the
integrity of the institutions within which the research occurs. Educational
researchers should be especially careful in working with children and other
vulnerable populations. These standards are intended to reinforce and strengthen
already existing standards enforced by Institutional Review Boards and other
professional associations. Standards intended to protect the rights of human
subjects should not be interpreted to prohibit teacher research, action research,
and/or other forms of practitioner inquiry so long as: the data are those that could
be derived from normal teaching/learning processes; confidentiality is maintained;
the safety and welfare of participants are protected; informed consent is obtained
when appropriate; and the use of the information obtained is primarily intended for
the benefit of those receiving instruction in that setting.

B. Standards

1. Participants, or their guardians, in a research study have the right to be
informed about the likely risks involved in the research and of potential
consequences for participants, and to give their informed consent before
participating in research. Educational researchers should communicate the
aims of the investigation as well as possible to informants and participants
(and their guardians), and appropriate representatives of institutions, and
keep them updated about any significant changes in the research program.

2. Informants and participants normally have a right to confidentiality,
which ensures that the source of information will not be disclosed without
the express permission of the informant. This right should be respected when
no clear understanding to the contrary has been reached. Researchers are
responsible for taking appropriate cautions to protect the confidentiality of
both participants and data to the full extent provided by law. Participants in
research should be made aware of the limits on the protections that can be
provided, and of the efforts toward protection that will be made even in
situations where absolute confidentiality cannot be assured. It should be
made clear to informants and participants that despite every effort made to
preserve it, confidentiality may be compromised. Secondary researchers
should respect and maintain the confidentiality established by primary
researchers. In some cases, e.g., survey research, it may be appropriate for
researchers to ensure participants of anonymity, i.e., that their identify is not
known even to the researcher. Anonymity should not be promised to
participants when only confidentiality is intended.

3. Honesty should characterize the relationship between researchers and
participants and appropriate institutional representatives. Deception is
discouraged; it should be used only when clearly necessary for scientific
studies, and should then be minimized. After the study, the researcher
should explain to the participants and institutional representatives the
reasons for the deception.

4. Educational researchers should be sensitive to any locally established
institutional policies or guidelines for conducting research.

5. Participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time,
unless otherwise constrained by their official capacities or roles.

6. Educational researchers should exercise caution to ensure that there is
no exploitation for personal gain of research populations or of institutional
settings of research. Educational researchers should not use their influence
over subordinates, students, or others to compel them to participate in
research.

7. Researchers have a responsibility to be mindful of cultural, religious,
gender, and other significant differences within the research population in
the planning, conduct, and reporting of their research.

8. Researchers should carefully consider and minimize the use of
research techniques that might have negative social consequences, for
example, experimental interventions that might deprive students of
important parts of the standard curriculum.

9. Educational researchers should be sensitive to the integrity of ongoing
institutional activities and alert appropriate institutional representatives of
possible disturbances in such activities which may result from the conduct of
the research.

10. Educational researchers should communicate their findings and the
practical significance of their research in clear, straightforward, and
appropriate language to relevant research populations, institutional
representatives, and other stakeholders.

11. Informants and participants have a right to remain anonymous. This
right should be respected when no clear understanding to the contrary has
been reached. Researchers are responsible for taking appropriate
precautions to protect the confidentiality of both participants and data.
Those being studied should be made aware of the capacities of the various
data-gathering technologies to be used in the investigation so that they can
make an informed decision about their participation. It should also be made
clear to informants and participants that despite every effort made to
preserve it, anonymity may be compromised. Secondary researchers should
respect and maintain the anonymity established by primary researchers.

III. Guiding Standards: Intellectual Ownership

A. Preamble. Intellectual ownership is predominantly a function of creative
contribution. Intellectual ownership is not predominantly a function of effort
expended.

B. Standards
1. Authorship should be determined based on the following guidelines,
which are not intended to stifle collaboration, but rather to clarify the
credit appropriately due for various contributions to research.

a. All those, regardless of status, who have made substantive creative
contribution to the generation of an intellectual product are entitled to
be listed as authors of that product.

b. First authorship and order of authorship should be the consequence of
relative creative leadership and creative contribution. Examples of
creative contributions are: writing first drafts or substantial portions;
significant rewriting or substantive editing; and contributing
generative ideas or basic conceptual schemes or analytic categories,
collecting data which require significant interpretation or judgment,
and interpreting data.

c. Clerical or mechanical contributions to an intellectual product are not
grounds for ascribing authorship. Examples of such technical
contributions are: typing, routine data collection or analysis, routine
editing, and participation in staff meetings.

d. Authorship and first authorship are not warranted by legal or
contractual responsibility for or authority over the project or process that
generates an intellectual product. It is improper to enter into contractual
arrangements that preclude the proper assignment of authorship.

e. Anyone listed as author must have given his/her consent to be so
listed.

f. The work of those who have contributed to the production of an
intellectual product in ways short of these requirements for authorship
should be appropriately acknowledged within the product.


g. Acknowledgement of other work significantly relied on in the
development of an intellectual product is required. However, so long
as such work is not plagiarized or otherwise inappropriately used,
such reliance is not ground for authorship or ownership.

h. It is improper to use positions of authority to appropriate the work of
others or claim credit for it. In hierarchical relationships, educational
researchers should take care to ensure that those in subordinate
positions receive fair and appropriate authorship credit.

i. Theses and dissertations are special cases in which authorship is not
determined strictly by the criteria elaborated in these standards.
Authorship in the publication of work arising from theses and
dissertations is determined by creative intellectual contributions as in
other cases.

j. Authors should disclose the publication history of articles they submit
for publication; that is, if the present article is substantially similar in
content and form to one previously published, that fact should be
noted and the place of publication cited.

2. While under suitable circumstances, ideas and other intellectual products
may be viewed as commodities, arrangements concerning the production
or distribution of ideas or other intellectual products must be consistent
with academic freedom and the appropriate availability of intellectual
products to scholars, students, and the public. Moreover, when a conflict
between the academic and scholarly purposes of intellectual production
and profit from such production arise, preference should be given to the
academic and scholarly purposes.

3. Ownership of intellectual products should be based upon the following
guidelines:

a. Individuals are entitled to profit from the sale or disposition of those
intellectual products they create. They may therefore enter into
contracts or other arrangements for the publication or disposition of
intellectual products, and profit financially from these arrangements.

b. Arrangements for the publication or disposition of intellectual
products should be consistent with their appropriate public availability
and with academic freedom. Such arrangements should emphasize
the academic functions of publication over the maximization of profit.

c. Individuals or groups who fund or otherwise provide resources for the
development of intellectual products are entitled to assert claims to a
fair share of the royalties or other profits from the sale or disposition
of those products. As such claims are likely to be contentious,
funding institutions and authors should agree on policies for the
disposition of profits at the outset of the research or development
project.

d. Authors should not use positions of authority over other
individuals to compel them to purchase an intellectual product from
which the authors benefit. This standard is not meant to prohibit use
of an author's own textbook in a class, but copies should be made
available on library reserve so that students are not forced to purchase
it.

IV. Guiding Standards: Editing, Reviewing, and Appraising
Research

A. Preamble. Editors and reviewers have a responsibility to recognize a wide
variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives and, at the same time, to
ensure that manuscripts meet the highest standards as defined in the various
perspectives.

B. Standards

1. AERA journals should handle refereed articles in a manner consistent
with the following principles:

a. Fairness requires a review process that evaluates submitted works
solely on the basis of merit. Merit shall be understood to include both
the competence with which the argument is conducted and the
significance of the results achieved.

b. Although each AERA journal may concentrate on a particular field or
type of research, the set of journals as a whole should be open to all
disciplines and perspectives currently represented in the membership
and which support a tradition of responsible educational scholarship.
This Standard is not incompatible with giving serious consideration to
innovative work and should not be used to discourage perspectives not
yet fully established in traditional scholarship.


c. Blind review, with multiple readers, should be used for each
submission, except where explicitly waived. (See #3.)

d. Judgments of the adequacy of an inquiry should be made by reviewers
who are competent to read the work submitted to them. Editors
should strive to select reviewers who are familiar with the research
paradigm and who are not so unsympathetic as to preclude a
disinterested judgment of the merit of the inquiry.

e. Editors should insist that even unfavorable reviews be dispassionate
and constructive. Authors have the right to know the grounds for
rejection of their work.

2. AERA journals should have written, published policies for refereeing
articles.

3. AERA journals should have a written, published policy stating when
solicited and non-refereed publications are permissible.

4. AERA journals should publish statements indicating any special
emphases expected to characterize articles submitted for review.

5. In addition to enforcing standing strictures against sexist and racist
language, editors should reject articles that contain ad hominen attacks on
individuals or groups or insist that such language or attacks be removed
prior to publication.

6. AERA journals and AERA members who serve as editors of journals
should require authors to disclose the full publication history of material
substantially similar in content and form to that submitted to their
journals.

V. Guiding Standards: Sponsors, Policymakers, and Other Users of
Research

A. Preamble. Researchers, research institutions, and sponsors of research
jointly share responsibility for the ethical integrity of research, and should ensure
that this integrity is not violated. While it is recognized that these parties may
sometimes have conflicting legitimate aims, all those with responsibility for
research should protect against compromising the standards of research, the
community of researchers, the subjects of research, and the users of research.
They should support the widest possible dissemination and publication of research
results. AERA should promote, as nearly as it can, conditions conducive to the
preservation of research integrity.

B. Standards

1. The data and results of a research study belong to the researchers who
designed and conducted the study, unless specific contractual
arrangements have been made with respect to either or both the data
and results, except as noted in II B.4. (participants may withdraw at
any stage.)

2. Educational researchers are free to interpret and publish their findings
without censorship or approval from individuals or organizations,
including sponsors, funding agencies, participants, colleagues,
supervisors, or administrators. This understanding should be
conveyed to participants as part of the responsibility to secure
informed consent.

3. Researchers conducting sponsored research retain the right to publish
the findings under their own names.

4. Educational researchers should not agree to conduct research that
conflicts with academic freedom, nor should they agree to undue or
questionable influence by government or other funding agencies.
Examples of such improper influence include endeavors to interfere
with the conduct of research, the analysis of findings, or the reporting
of interpretations. Researchers should report to AERA attempts by
sponsors or funding agencies to use any questionable influence.

5. Educational researchers should fully disclose the aims and
sponsorship of their research, except where such disclosure would
violate the usual tenets of confidentiality and anonymity. Sponsors or
funders have the right to have disclaimers included in research reports
to differentiate their sponsorship from the conclusions of the research.

6. Educational researchers should not accept funds from sponsoring
agencies that request multiple renderings of reports that would distort
the results or mislead readers.
7. Educational researchers should fulfill their responsibilities to agencies
funding research, which are entitled to an accounting of the use of
their funds, and to a report of the procedures, findings, and
implications of the funded research.

8. Educational researchers should make clear the bases and rationales,
and the limits thereof, of their professionally rendered judgments in
consultation with the public, government, or other institutions. When
there are contrasting professional opinions to the one being offered,
this should be made clear.

9. Educational researchers should disclose to appropriate parties all cases
where they would stand to benefit financially from their research or
cases where their affiliations might tend to bias their interpretation of
their research or their professional judgments.

VI. Guiding Standards: Students and Student Researchers

A. Preamble. Educational researchers have a responsibility to ensure the
competence of those inducted into the field and to provide appropriate help and
professional advice to novice researchers.

B. Standards

1. In relations with students and student researchers, educational
researchers should be candid, fair, non-exploitative, and committed to
their welfare and progress. They should conscientiously supervise,
encourage, and support students and student researchers in their
academic endeavors, and should appropriately assist them in securing
research support or professional employment.

2. Students and student researchers should be selected based upon their
competence and potential contributions to the field. Educational
researchers should not discriminate among students and student
researchers on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, marital status,
color, social class, religion, ethnic background, national origin, or
other irrelevant factors.

3. Educational researchers should inform students and student
researchers concerning the ethical dimensions of research, encourage
their practice of research consistent with ethical standards, and
support their avoidance of questionable projects.

4. Educational researchers should realistically apprise students and
student researchers with regard to career opportunities and
implications associated with their participation in particular research
projects or degree programs. Educational researchers should ensure
that research assistantships be educative.

5. Educational researchers should be fair in the evaluation of research
performance, and should communicate that evaluation fully and
honestly to the student or student researcher. Researchers have an
obligation to report honestly on the competence of assistants to other
professionals who require such evaluations.

6. Educational researchers should not permit personal animosities or
intellectual differences vis-à-vis colleagues to foreclose student and
student researcher access to those colleagues, or to place the student
or student researcher in an untenable position with those colleagues.



The Ethical Standards of the American Educational Research Association were
developed and, in June 1992, adopted by AERA to be an educational document, to
stimulate collegial debate, and to evoke voluntary compliance by moral persuasion.
The Ethical Standards were revised in 1996 and in 2000. Accordingly, it is not the
intention of the Association to monitor adherence to the Standards or to investigate
allegations of violations to the Code.