WS1 - Ethical and Regulatory Oversight of National and Transnational Social Science Research

Workshop Materials (slides/handouts) can be found here.

The 2018 revisions to the Common Rule widened the category of exempted studies with particular relevance for the social sciences, providing greater flexibility and lessening the burden of ethical review (see, e.g. Riley and Akbar 2017). However, the complex challenges of ensuring ethical conduct in the social sciences remain. This workshop is designed for ethics administrators reviewing research projects in the social sciences so they can ask: how can we implement ethical review in the social sciences in a way that efficiently and effectively supports ethical research? The workshop will start with a brief introduction to the social sciences and the particular role they play in academic research, and then focus on three key areas which raise ethical questions, from both practical and procedural perspectives: (1) research on elites and powerful actors; (2) research with and on vulnerable people and populations; and (3) observational, inductive, and open-ended research. Speakers will use a series of real-world cases to work through these areas, exploring additional challenging dimensions to the research including working internationally and on sensitive topics. In each case, speakers will draw on existing scholarship.