Is that ethical? An exploration of political scientists’ views on research ethics

What do political scientists think about research ethics? What research practices do they find acceptable? Using a survey conducted with the American Political Science Association, we explore perceptions of ethics among 362 political scientists. We find that political scientists do not place much re...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mia Costa, Charles Crabtree, John B. Holbein, Michelangelo Landgrave
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2023-12-01
Series:Research & Politics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680231209553
Description
Summary:What do political scientists think about research ethics? What research practices do they find acceptable? Using a survey conducted with the American Political Science Association, we explore perceptions of ethics among 362 political scientists. We find that political scientists do not place much relative weight on ethics when evaluating research. We do, however, find that researchers view different modes of inquiry as having different potential harms. Furthermore, using a conjoint experiment, we find that factors like author affiliation, study location, method, and sample size shape evaluations of study ethicality. Our results contribute to the growing body of metascience by expanding understanding of ethics in political science research.
ISSN:2053-1680