Importance of Ethics in Safeguarding and Ensuring High Quality Research

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the important of ethics in safeguarding and ensuring high quality research. Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guide moral choices about individual behavior and their relationship with others. Ethics has also been defined as norms of conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Research Ethics is defined as a code of guidelines on how to conduct scientific research in a morally acceptable way. The importance of Ethics in Research cannot be under estimated. Researchers world over face ethical dilemmas due to lack of adherence to ethical guidelines. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal subjects, students, participants, researchers, institutions and the public. For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients. Responsible conduct of research is therefore important for safety of all involved in carrying out research. Further, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data can promote the truth and minimize error. There is need for Research integrity in areas of falsification, fabrication and plagiarism. The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activities. Researchers have carried out studies on importance of ethics in research. This is a desk top research study to sensitize researchers on the important of upholding high ethical standards when carrying out research. The study recommends that in order to ensure accuracy of scientific knowledge, ethics should be followed rigorously. The study recommends the need to sensitize researchers on the benefits of ethical research and that every researcher should be aware of the ethical considerations that need to be taken into account while undertaking research.