Workshop on Ethical Protocols and Standards for Research in Social Sciences Today

Science has always had to address ethical issues, with advances in science continuously creating new ethical challenges. Biomedical sciences have traditionally been viewed as the most developed in addressing ethics. The 1964 ‘Declaration of Helsinki’ was an effort to codify ethical approaches in biomedical experimentation, and has since provided the basis for the majority of subsequent documentation on the topic. Research in the social sciences regularly faces its own ethical issues, yet it lacks an equivalent codification of approaches that are tailored to its disciplines, as well as sufficient infrastructures at the institutional level to assess proposals. The importance and value of ethics in social sciences research are not yet universally embraced, creating divergence in approaches and resourcing between countries, institutions and disciplines. Furthermore, social sciences research is undergoing a period of rapid change. There is increasing participation in multidisciplinary projects, while changes in technology are creating new challenges for social sciences researchers, which need to be addressed. The social sciences urgently need ethical protocols that can function effectively across disciplines and can adapt to advances in research methodologies and strategies. The Declaration of Helsinki is aimed squarely at physicians and biomedical researchers, and makes no provisions for ethical considerations regarding, for example, research in geographical areas that are under an oppressive regime or are in conflict, research with subjects who are in a vulnerable position, or the sometimes necessary use of deception as part of the research methodology. The Declaration’s statement on privacy and confidentiality is simply the short message that “every precaution must be taken” to this effect; however, a growing number of studies based on ‘Big Data’ analyses raises potential ethical concerns over data sharing, data linkage, data re-identification and privacy issues, including the ‘right to erasure’. This makes the need for a solid, robust code of ethics adapted to social sciences research increasingly pressing. With this in mind, the Science Europe Scientific Committee for the Social Sciences organised a workshop to explore ideas on how to move this issue forward and how to proceed with establishing an ethical framework for the social sciences.