Instructions for Research Papers

• The suggested length is 10-12 pages but shorter papers are acceptable if they are well-written and cover the topic adequately.

• For this paper, a list of references is required and you must put citations in the body of the paper using one of the styles listed on the library home page (either MLA or APA).

• It is quite acceptable to take a rough draft to the Writing Tutorial Services center in Ballantine and ask them for suggestions.

• It is quite acceptable to “ask a librarian” for help in finding sources.

Various Types of Research Topics

• I will now describe various strategies for finding a topic and the general requirements on a paper of that type.

• If you’re interested in doing a paper on something that doesn’t seem to fit my typology, please talk to me about its suitability.

• As you will see, the domain of possible subjects to research is quite broad.

A.Famous Cases in Research Ethics

• You have already heard mention of some of the famous historical episodes that have generated lots of discussion of issues in research ethics:

– Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience

– Tuskegee syphilis study

– Millikan’s and Mendel’s reporting of data

– Approval of thalidomide

– Joseph Ellis’ war stories

• Today I will briefly mention some additional interesting cases:

– The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy

– “Newton and the Fudge Factor”

– The Patchwork Mouse

– The Baltimore Case

– Reporting of cold fusion experiments

– The discovery and debunking of “N-rays”

– Victims of Memory

– The Lysenko affair

– The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead

– The Apotheosis of Captain Cook

– Darkness in Eldorado

Doing Research on a Case Study

• The first thing to do is to try to establish the basic facts about the alleged misconduct.

• You then need to lay out exactly what the ethical issues are and decide which one(s) you will focus on. (For example, issues about whistle blowing may be more interesting than the original fraud.)

• In real life cases there is often controversy about what exactly happened and the ethical conclusion one draws may just depend on what you think the facts are. But there may also be disagreements about which values are more important.

• Now you can revert to the format of Essay #1 - give arguments on both sides, etc.

B. Ethical Issues not Discussed in Class

• There are many additional standard issues in research ethics:

– When should research results be kept secret?

– What if the people paying for the research want to “see it” before it is published?

– How much responsibility should a scientist take for the dissemination of results in the popular media?

– Are the results of some kinds of research so likely to be misused that it is unethical even to undertake the study in the first place?

– Should scientific societies prohibit their members from undertaking such research?

– It is wrong to force prisoners to take part in experiments. But when does rewarding them (say with release time) become coercive?

– In a similar vein, what about paying research subjects in underdeveloped countries or homeless people sums of money which are large by their standards?

– Should students be required to take part in experiments in order to pass the course?

– Who owns scientific data before it is published? The funding agency, the university, the person who did the data collecting, the laboratory supervisor?

– What issues arise in deciding who should be included amongst the authors of a scientific paper? Should the computer consultant’s name appear?

– Articles submitted for publication undergo a process of “peer review”. Should this be anonymous? What if a referee unconsciously picks up a good idea, publishes it and then gets the credit?

Doing Research on a New Issue

• What you will need to do first is to convince the reader that there is an issue here for which there is not an obvious, simple answer.

• Motivate it as a real issue by giving some examples (real life ones or made up ones) that illustrate the conflicting responses that people might have to the dilemma.

• Clarify exactly what the issue is and then deal with it as in the essays.

C. Ethical Codes and Regulations

• Many professions and disciplines have responded to the ethical dilemmas faced by their practionners by drawing up codes of professional ethics.

• The government, universities and funding agencies also regulate academic research.

• A possible topic for a research paper is to look at such formalizations of ethical conduct in detail. How complete are they? How practical are they?

• Were they developed primarily to protect the profession or university from law suits and outside criticism or do they appear to stem from genuine ethical concern?

Doing Research on Codes or Regulations

• In most cases in order to get enough material for your paper you will need to do some of the following:

– Trace the history of how the rules arose and how they changed over time

– Look at controversies within the profession about the specifics of the code

– Do a comparative analysis. For example, compare codes for psychologists in different countries. Or compare what medical researchers say about the proper treatment of human subjects with what psychologists or anthropologists say.

• Make sure your paper contains a lot of analysis and argumentation. It shouldn’t just be a catalogue of who forbids what.

D. Philosophical or Theoretical Issues

• In most of our class discussions we have just taken as a premise that deception is dubious (although it sometimes may be permissible) and harming animals unnecessarily is heinous.

• But we haven’t spent much time probing more deeply by asking exactly why such things are counter indicated.

• To do so leads us into moral philosophy and ethical theory.

• So one might decide to explore the foundations of some of the slogans we have been developing, such as the importance of informed consent.

A Few Possible Topics

• With these kinds of topics it is especially important to have a good jumping off source. Here are a couple:

– For issues about deception, see Sissela Bok’s book Lying.

– For animal rights, see works by Tom Regan, especially the article in the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Ethics.

– For informed consent, a useful philosophical keyword would be autonomy.

• As usual you should look for a variety of views, such as different ways of justifying an ethical slogan.

E. Revisiting a Topic Discussed in Class

• It is perfectly OK to discuss in more detail material that was assigned for class.

• However, if you do so you will be expected to go just as far beyond the class discussion as if you were to choose an entirely new topic.

• So be sure you know of some really good new material on the subject before deciding on going in this directions.

Most Important!

• Start early!

• Ask for suggestions!

• Polish your final draft!