Ámbito de planificación institucional y curricular.

Is essentially a predisposition or prejudice for or against a theory, person, group or institution which may distort or skew cognizance and interpretation of phenomena. However, your greatest source bias may be your very own researcher’s bias.

Ethical Principles

According to Burnham, et al. (2004: 253), five basic principles can be discerned:

 Beneficence or the avoidance of harm: researchers ought to seek to do good rather than cause harm.

 Veracity or the avoidance of deception: they ought to tell the truth and keep promises.

 Privacy or autonomy: individuals have a right to limit access to information about them.

 Confidentiality: closely related to the notion of privacy, the right to control the use of information about oneself.

 Consent: the notion of informed consent, often recommended as an operational principle for the conduct of the research.

Professional Code of Conduct

Professional associations of Social and Political Scientists now generally provide “Code of Conduct” or “ethical guidelines” for their members.

The codes of conduct for members are (PSA, 2002; APSA 2002):

 Upholding scientific standards

 Compliance with the law

 Avoidance of social and personal harm

 Upholding trust and confidentiality principle between interviewer and interviewees

 Observing legislative changes in human rights (right to privacy) and data protection

 Avoidance of deception – they ought to tell the truth and keep promises

 Obligations to the society (citizens)

 Consent – the notion of informed consent, often recommended as an operational principle for the conduct of research

 Obligations to sponsor’s (funders) and employer

 Ethics Committees and a standard protocol for checking ethical considerations in universities.

Each of the codes has something to say on the subject in relations with sponsors. The codes emphasise that research cannot be exempted from quality assurance procedures. High quality research demands high

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qualities in ethical standards and to ensure that procedures agreed to at the design stage are maintained throughout the project.

3.2 Practical Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoid copying material by electronic means

You may do this if you are prepared to quote the source. If you use the material in your work, and fail to add an appropriate citation, this would be regarded as cheating. The practice of cutting (copying) and pasting electronically (for example, taking material from websites) and using this in a project or dissertation without citing it, is regarded as plagiarism and will be published if detected. Academics now have sophisticated electronic means of identifying where this has occurred.

When making notes, always write down your sources

You may risk plagiarising if you cannot recall or find the source of a piece of text. Avoid this getting into the habit of making careful note of the source on the same piece of paper that you used to summarise or copy it out. Always use quote mark “…….” When taking such notes verbatim from texts and other materials, to indicate that what you have written down is a direct copy of the words used, as you may forget this at a later time. You do not need to quote directly in the final version of your work, but if you paraphrase, you should still cite the source.

Try not to paraphrase another person’s work too closely

Taking key phrases and rearranging them, or merely substituting some words with synonyms is still regarded as plagiarism. Three good reasons for paraphrasing:

 it shows that you understand the concepts and ideas from the original text

 it gives your reader a broad idea of the key ideas or argument without having to read all the source material

 it demonstrates your capacity for critical thinking.

Follow the academic custom of quoting sources. You should do this even if you prefer to use your own wording rather than a direct copy of the original. The reference to the source signifies that you are making that statement on the basis of the ideas reported there.

Avoid overuse of quotations

Plagiarism still occurs if a considerable percentage of your report or dissertation is comprised of quotations. In general, quotations should be used sparingly.

Double-check on your “original ideas”

If you have what you think is a novel idea, do not simply accept that your brainwave is unique. It is common for people to forget the original source of an idea, which may resurface in their mind after many years and perhaps in a different context – this may have happened to you.

Think carefully about possible sources that you may have forgotten about; ask others (such as your tutor or supervisor) whether they have come across the idea before; and consult relevant texts, encyclopaedia or the Web (Eneanya, 2012).

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES

What do you understand by plagiarism and how do you overcome it in research?

4.0 CONCLUSION

In this unit, we have discussed ethics in political science research. In recent years, ethical considerations across the research community have come to the forefront. Ethical consideration may arise when we try to decide between one course of action and another by reference to standards of what is morally right or wrong. Political research cannot be conducted in a vacuum. Professional associations of social and political scientists now generally provide codes of conduct or ethical guidelines for their members. Though the Social Research Association code is not specifically written for political scientists, it is seen as offering a “gold standard” in terms of its detailed but also very balanced advice.

5.0 SUMMARY

For academic research project, all institutional regulations require it to be original. Originality of the research in this context means that it was conducted by the student independently and honestly using some research resources and acknowledging them in the study. Political research can no longer be conducted in a moral vacuum. Researchers are now guided by basic ethical principles and code of conduct drawn up by associations representing their disciplines. These research code of conduct and ethical principles now guide researchers against certain forms of conduct, such as: plagiarism, fraud, dishonesty, bias, individual privacy, confidentiality and avoidance of deception. These ethical

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problems often occur in the course of research and researchers should avoid them.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. What do you understand by the nature of ethical problems in empirical research?

2. How do you avoid unethical conduct in empirical research?

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

American Political Science Association, (APSA) (2002).

Barnes, J.A. (1979). “Who Should Know What?” Social Science, Privacy and Ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Eneanya, A.N. (2012). Research Method in Political Science and Public Administration. Lagos: University of Lagos Press Ltd.

Grix, J. (2002). “Introducing Students to the Generic Terminology of Social Research.” Politics, Vol. 22, No. 3 (September), 175-86.

Political Science Associatioin, (2002). Member’s Handbook (Newcastle, PSA).

Rosamond, B. (2002). “Plagiarism, Academic Norms and the Governance of the Profession”, Politics, Vol. 22, 167-74.

www.apsa.org/pubs/ethics.cfm (27 March).

Adamu, S.O. & Johnson, T. (1985). Statistics for Beginners. Ibadan:

Evans Brother Ltd.

Nurudeen, T.S. & Ojoawo, O.O. (2001). Inferential Statistics. Lagos:

Kamah and Associates.

Pierce, R. (2008). Research Methods in Politics: A Practical guide.

London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

MODULE 5 POLITICAL DATA ANALYSIS