SWEC: Research Ethics

JUC Social Work Education Committee:
Code of Ethics for Social Work and Social Care Research

  1. At all stages of the research process, from inception, resourcing, design, investigation and dissemination, social work and social care researchers have a duty to maintain an active, personal and disciplinary ethical awareness and to take practical and moral responsibility for their work.
  2. Both the process of social work/ care research, including choice of methodology, and the use to which any findings might be put, should be congruent with the aims and values of social work practice and, where possible, seek to empower service users, promote their welfare and improve their access to economic and social capital on equal terms with other citizens.
  3. Social work and social care researchers should seek to promote emancipatory research and work together with disempowered groups, individuals and communities to devise, articulate and to achieve research agendas that respect fundamental human rights and which aim towards social justice.
  4. In the case of all those who are the subjects of research, but particularly those made vulnerable by age, health, disability or social disadvantage, social work and social care researchers must retain a primary concern for subjects' welfare and should actively protect participants from physical and mental harm, discomfort, danger and unreasonable disruption in their daily lives or unwarranted intrusions into their privacy.
  5. Social work and social care researchers must not tolerate any form of discrimination based on age, gender, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, health, marital, domestic or parental status and must seek to ensure that their work excludes any unacknowledged bias. Where appropriate, social work/ care researchers should seek to predicate their work on the perspective and lived experiences of the research subject.
  6. In establishing the aims and objectives of their research, social work and social care researchers are to consider the ascertainable consequences of their actions for the users of social work/ care services, both in particular and in general, in order to ensure that the legitimate interests of service users are not unwarrantably compromised or prejudiced by the proposed investigation.
  7. In their chosen methodology and in every other aspect of their research design, social work researchers are to ensure that they are technically competent to carry out the particular investigation to the highest standards of social science as currently understood, recognising the limitations of their own expertise. In relation to research carried out primarily for educational or instructional purposes, this responsibility is shared by the student's supervisor.
  8. In relation to every participant to the research process, including service users, colleagues, funders and employers, social work and social care researchers have a duty to deal openly and fairly. In particular, there is a duty to inform every participant of all features of the research that might be expected to influence willingness to participate, especially but not exclusively when access to services may be, or may be perceived to be, dependent on participation.
  9. Only in cases where no alternative strategy is feasible, where no harm to the research subject can be foreseen and where the greater good is self-evidently served, are procedures involving deception or concealment permissible for social work and social care researchers.
  10. The social work and social care researcher will at all times respect the individual participant's absolute right to decline to participate in or to withdraw from the research programme, especially when the researcher, is by any means, in a position of authority over the participant.
  11. Participation in any social work/ care research activity is to be predicated on the freely given, informed and acknowledged consent of the research subject. Particular care must be taken in obtaining the consent of those who have impairments that might limit understanding and/ or communication. Third party consent in the case of those who are incapable of giving consent directly may only be obtained from a legally authorized or other appropriate person.
  12. Consent must be secured through the use of language that is readily comprehensible to the research subject and which accurately and adequately explains the purpose of the research and the procedures to be followed.
  13. Any data or other information produced in the course of social work/ care research is confidential except as agreed in advance with the research participants (including research subjects) and prescribed by law.
  14. Social work/ care research findings must be reported accurately, completely and without distortion and note any significant variables and conditions that may have affected the outcomes or the interpretation of the data. This includes a duty to report results which reflect unfavourably on agencies of the central or local state, vested interests (including the researchers' own and those of sponsors) as well as prevailing wisdom and orthodox opinion. In addition, social work and social care researchers, have a responsibility to make every reasonable effort to ensure that public communications of their work reported through the mass media, do not contain unfavourable stereotypes or other derogatory or damaging representations of service users. Social work/ care researchers should also seek to ensure that their findings are not otherwise misused, especially where this is to the detriment of service users or of any partner to the research process.
  15. The publication of social work research findings should properly and in proportion to their contribution, acknowledge the part played by all participants to the research process.

This Code was prepared as part of the ESRC sponsored seminar series 'Theorising Social Work Research'.  Ian Butler, Keele University.