Research Data Management: Research Ethics

Ethical Considerations to consider:

• Researchers must obtain informed consent from participants, ensuring they understand how their data will be used, stored, and shared.
• Sensitive data should be anonymised or de-identified to protect participants' identities.
• Ensure compliance with data protection laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR).
• Research involving human subjects often requires an ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) approval.
• Researchers must ensure that the data submitted is accurate, complete, and free from fabrication or falsification.
• Researchers must respect intellectual property rights and ensure data sharing does not violate copyright laws.
• Researchers should provide clear documentation and metadata to enable others to understand and use the data responsibly.

It is important for researchers to understand the relevant ownership rules for any data that they collect or use.

From an ethical standpoint, researchers should consider the implications of data ownership agreements before they are made with other researchers, institutions, or funding agencies.

Typically, when research is funded by government or nonprofit granting agencies, the data are owned by the institution receiving the grant. The primary researcher or scholar receiving the grant has the responsibility for the storage and maintenance of the data, including the protection of confidential or sensitive information.

Data obtained through research supported by private or corporate funding, however, may have different guidelines for ownership and restrictions on sharing. This issue is further complicated when organizations such as universities patent data sets.

If individual people form part of your research project, then you have a duty to ensure that any data you gather and subsequently use is handled correctly. Ethical guidelines are issued by funding organisations and may also be compiled by the University.

In addition, legislation such as the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI), which governs the processing of personal data, must be adhered to.

See more under the tab Ethical Issues.

Unisa's Policy on Research Ethics enables researchers to maintain ethically responsible research practices.