Appraising your Research Obligations: am I doing it right?

Checklist of supplementary questions on risk assessment

Leicester University,College ofSocial Sciences, Arts and Humanities

Dimension / No. / Questions to consider / Issues / Actions
Deontological
Possible risks to individuals affected by your research / 1 / Have you identified the potential risks to participants which arise from your research and assessed the extent and likelihood of the occurrence of those risks?
Have you put measures into place (such as participant information and consent forms, secure storage of data, anonymised interview transcripts) which will mitigate or control these anticipated risks?
Possible risks for particular groups/organisation related to your research site / 2 / Have you identified the potential risks which arise from your research to your research site (for example, to the identity and reputation of an organisation such as a company or institution such as a school or a prison) and assessed the extent and likelihood of the occurrence of those risks?
Have you put measures into place (such as familiarising yourself with and observing organisational codes of conduct) which will mitigate or control these anticipated risks.
Possible wider risks / 3 / Have you identified the potential risks which arise from your research to the University under whose auspices you will be conducting your research(for example, that participants may experience physical or psychological harm as a result of your research) and assessed the extent and likelihood of the occurrence of those risks?
Have you put measures into place (such as a thorough and considered application for ethics authorisation which accurately reflects the nature of your research and the ways in which any risks will be managed) which will mitigate or control these anticipated risks. Have you kept the University informed of any changes you have made to your research since it was authorised?
4 / Have you identified the potential risks of acting unethically on the wider research community, of which you are now part, and the implications of any failure to do so (for example, could any failure on your part to act with integrity in your research setting result in access to other and future researchers being denied?)
Possible risks to yourself, as researcher / 5 / Have you identified the potential risks to yourself which arise from your research and assessed the extent and likelihood of the occurrence of those risks (forexample, what kinds of risks may arise if you are a sole researcher carrying out fieldwork in participant’s homes or after dark in a city centre or with vulnerable people?) Have you assessed the extent and likelihood of the occurrence of those risks?
6 / Have you put measures into place (such as informing someone of your whereabouts or undergoing training in interviewing strategies with vulnerable people) which will mitigate or control these anticipated risks? Have you adapted your plans, using the support and advice available to you at the University, to minimise any identified risks to your safety?

Based on paper: Stutchbury, K., & Fox, A. (2009). Ethics in Educational Research: introducing a methodological tool for effective ethical analysis. The Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(4), 489-504.

© Alison Fox and Hillary Jones, University of Leicester (2015).The document cannot be reused commercially. CC-BY-NC-SA (share alike with attribution for non-commercial use). The moral rights of Alison Fox and Hillary Jones to be recognised as the authors of this work have been asserted.