A Call for Structured Ethics Appendices in Social Science Papers

Edward Asiedu, Dean Karlan, Monica Lambon-Quayefio and Christopher Udry

No 28393, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Ethics in social science experimentation and data collection are often discussed but rarely articulated in writing as part of research outputs. Although papers typically reference human subjects research approvals from relevant institutional review boards, most recognize that such boards do not carry out comprehensive ethical assessments. We propose a structured ethics appendix to provide details on the following: policy equipoise, role of the researcher, potential harms to participants and nonparticipants, conflicts of interest, intellectual freedom, feedback to participants, and foreseeable misuse of research results. We discuss each of these, and some of the norms and challenging situations of each. We believe that discussing such issues explicitly in appendices of papers, even if briefly, will serve two purposes: more complete communication of ethics can improve discussions of papers and can clarify and improve the norms themselves.

JEL-codes: C81 C83 C9 J01 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
Note: CH DEV ED EEE EH LS PE POL
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Published as Edward Asiedu & Dean Karlan & Monica Lambon-Quayefio & Christopher Udry, 2021. "A call for structured ethics appendices in social science papers," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(29), pages 2024570118-, July.

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