LSE Knowledge Beyond Boundaries – An Incomplete History of Research Ethics: Fostering a Responsible Research Ecosystem through Historical Narratives

An Incomplete History of Research Ethics, a collaboratively built resource compiling stories from our past to foster a more responsible research ecosystem.

This project was inspired as a response to a common narrative in the history of research ethics. In short, it tends to be seen as starting after WWII. Indeed, a great deal of important work was carried out to keep the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi regime in Germany from ever happening again. The resulting legislation and declarations inform the realm of bioethics. Research ethics is also informed by animal rights activism. It’s worth mentioning the excellent policy-changing work being conducted by Jonathan Birch’s here at the LSE’s Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method department. Importantly, Birch’s work on animal sentience and the precautionary principle reminds us that the questions underlying animal research ethics are all but settled, and the same can be said of medical research ethics. And it is within this environment of unsettled philosophical quandries that we encounter the rise of data ethics, dealing with questions about how modern technologies affect our lives and often consolidate value systems. Finally, this relatively simplistic narrative is often framed as being informed by three Western moral theories: virtue ethics, deontology and consequentialism. Without naming names, I can say I have even encountered this very narrative within the LSE’s philosophy department.

I admit the outline is quite coarse – there is also work on the ethics of anthropology, history, and so on. Also, the listed approaches and systems of thought are extremely informative to discussions about research ethics. However, they also seem very limited in the sources they draw on. Ultimately, it is difficult to inform the vast majority of modern research through these narrow lenses.

Thus, what I propose is that we develop a richer and more inclusive notion of the history of research ethics. This can be particularly useful if framed as case studies. This is something we argue for in a forthcoming cross-institutional report. Finally, my experience as a project lead at OLS helps me see that such an endeavour is best carried out collaboratively.

So here we are! An Incomplete History of Research Ethics aims to provide a compilation of thought-provoking stories from our shared past. The project relies on community-led dialogue and rigorous research. This is enabled through the open-source platform GitHub. Stories are delivered in short- and long-form, using accessible and fun formats. You can visit the visually engaging platform Tiki-Toki where stories are currently hosted. And, finally, through story-telling, we promote reflexivity across the research ecosystem.

Interdisciplinary research breaks down epistemic boundaries. We can see this in the diversity of the project’s stories. For example, there is the case of Haber & Stornetta embedding a moral code into the early forms of blockchain technology. There is the earlier case of Florence Nightingale who, in the 1850s, used data visualisation techniques to explain the different causes of death during the Crimean war. There is also the case of mapping the globe using Mercator Projection as early as 1569, shaping distorted views of the world map, and demonstrating that mathematical assumptions can have political implications. Finally, consider the ancient Babylonian Code of Hamurabi legislating on medical misconduct.

To make such diverse stories possible, the project relies on many contribution types, from working on stories’ content to communicating the project beyond its community, shaping policies that its contributors abide by, and developing and maintaining the website and GitHub.

I encourage you to read through the project’s protocols, leave thoughts on open GitHub issues, and reach out to me via LinkedIn, or Twitter.