Ethical considerations refer to a set of principles that guide research designs and practices to protect the rights of research participants, enhance research validity, and maintain scientific integrity. These principles include:
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Voluntary participation: Participants must be given the choice to participate in the study or not, without any coercion or pressure.
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Informed consent: Participants must be fully informed about the studys purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits before agreeing to participate.
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Anonymity: Participants identities must be kept confidential, and their personal information must not be disclosed without their consent.
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Confidentiality: Participants data must be kept confidential, and their responses must not be shared with anyone outside the research team.
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Potential for harm: Researchers must identify and minimize any potential risks or harm to participants, both physical and psychological.
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Results communication: Researchers must communicate the studys results to participants and the wider community in a clear and understandable manner.
Ethical considerations are essential in research to ensure scientific integrity, human rights, and dignity, and collaboration between science and society. Ethical guidelines are also important in decision-making processes that involve children and young people to avoid any harm to them. Ethical considerations are necessary because they promote research objectives, including avoidance of error, truth, and knowledge, and prohibit false interpretations and misrepresentation of facts in deriving conclusions from any research undertaking. Researchers should observe ethical considerations throughout their research to ensure the research ...
