Collaborative Discussion – Ethics and Validity in the Research Process

What are the possible ethical issues within the research studies?
How might ethical concerns influence the research outcomes of these research studies?
What is the research design validity and how can research bias can impact validity? (Hint: Research how design validity and instrumentation validity are different concepts.)
How can stakeholders externally influence health care research?
What conclusions can you draw about ethics and validity in the research process based on the research studies your group discussed?

ANSWER

Collaborative Discussion- Ethics and Validity in the Research Process

The major ethical issue in conducting research includes informed consent. Informed consent involves a person voluntarily accepting to be involved in the research. For example, when conducting medical research, the patient involved should consent to participate in the study (Azoury et al., 2018). Ethical issues such as informed consent impact the outcomes of research in that if the patient does not consent, the information from the research cannot be used. It is also unethical and can lead to lawsuits.

Research bias is the dominant reason for poor research validity. Research bias happens when the researcher is determined to get a specific outcome and therefore tampers with the research to get that specific outcome. Any form of bias introduced in research messes with the validity of the research and leads to the research being completely canceled (Azoury et al., 2018). For example, if the person conducting the research excludes some part of the population from the research process.

The incorporationIncorporating patients and other stakeholders as partners in the research process effectively serve positively in the research efforts and subsequent findings. The involvement of stakeholders helps to expand audiences beyond the research journals and increase participants’ uptake (Azoury et al., 2018). Involving stakeholders also provides a unique perspective to the research, which is helpful.

Ethical considerations in research are the principles that guide scientists and researchers and scientists when collecting data to adhere to a certain code of conduct. Following ethical codes such as informed consent, by not being biased, and autonomy and beneficence help with the validity of the research (Azoury et al., 2018). If the ethical code of conduct during research is not followed, the research outcomes become invalid and cannot be used in the healthcare environment to help other patients. It is therefore important to ensure that researchers adhere to ethics.

References

Azoury, M., Kaissi, B., & Attieh, L. (2018). Research ethics. In Modernizing the Academic Teaching and Research Environment (pp. 111-126). Springer, Cham.