# The ethical review process for social science research


I just finished reading ["My freshman
year"](http://www.amazon.com/My-Freshman-Year-Professor-Becoming/dp/0801443970),
an ethnographic book about a professor enrolling as a student at her own
university, and spending a year living in the dormitory, to try to
understand why she feels so disconnected from the contemporary student
culture. The book was published under the pseudonym Rebekah Nathan, but
a journalist in the New York Sun was able to piece together her real
identity - [Cathy
Small](http://home.nau.edu/sbs/anthro/faculty/small.asp) from [Northern
Arizona University](http://www.nau.edu/). The book is quite short, and
although she does quote from national surveys and some previous
research, it's written in a very popular voice, with very little theory.

For various reasons, the book made me think of a lot of different
topics. It made me think of many other ethnographic studies that I read
during my undergrad, and how I often had the feeling: "is this all you
came up with?" The book has some interesting points, but it still seems
little after a year of immersing oneself in a community - furthermore a
community of which she already had some knowledge. From her own
comments, it seems that she decided not to use a large amount of her
collected materials, because of concern with ethics.

**Ethics**![](http://minerva.stkate.edu/offices/administrative/orsp.nsf/files/logo/$file/irb_logo.jpg)

Which leads me to the question of research ethics, which is something I
have thought a lot about recently - not the least having had to go
through the Ethical Review Board protocol myself for my field work in
China. I was curious to see how the ethics of her fieldwork was
received, and I found a long - and quite vitriolic - debate in the
comment field under [an
article](http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/13/frosh) by Inside
Higher Ed. Most of the people on the list had not yet read the book -
nor did they know (until towards the end of the comment thread) her real
identity. Most readers were appalled at her use of deception (not
telling the other students that she was doing research), although she
did use informed consent for her formal interviews, and her IRB approved
of the research.

One of the things that surprised me was that she chose to do the
research at her own campus. It might have been closer to home, and
easier to organize from the university, but it seems to make things much
more complicated. I am surprised that she wasn't recognized more, for a
university with only 10,000 students, although from what she describes,
it's very large and dispersed, and perhaps the anthropologi professors
just drive to the anthro building, and stay there. If she had been at
UofT Scarborough, she would have ran into colleagues all the time. In
addition, it is much easier to discover which university she talked
about, and she will probably run into students she lived with
(especially since they were freshman, and had three years left), maybe
even teach some of them, or meet them in other capacities.

I failed to find any serious discussion about the ethics of her approach
(the debate mentioned above was high on temper, low on facts), which
would have been interesting - but clearly it worked out, since she is
not only still in her job, but also has been travelling around and
lecturing about the student experience.

I think that the demand for anonymity, for example, sometimes goes too
far -- or is unworkable. I remember another example of a student at my
school who was working as a teacher (many of our students are part-time,
mid-career). She wrote her thesis on the process of internationalizing
the curriculum at her school. She would change the name of the school,
but of course, everyone could google her and find out where she lived --
and anyone involved at that school could look up her thesis, and that is
probably what's the most relevant. Another recent example is a student
who just defended her PhD thesis, and presented on it in our class
(taught by her supervisor). She discussed the policies toward
internationalization by two different universities, one in Ontario and
one in British Columbia. According to her supervisor: "We all understand
that this refers to X and Y university, because of their
characteristics, but for ethical reasons, we couldn't name them in the
thesis". What ethical reasons, if anyone familiar with the Canadian
context can immediately deduce which universities are in question?

I guess my biggest problem with elaborate ERB protocols is that they do
exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to do: incite debate,
reflection and continued care. Instead, with their 20 page protocols
that take months to get through, people focus on writing to get
approved, not daring to take chances with new research methods, for
example, because it might delay their project for too long. Instead of
allowing you to go to a new country, spend time understanding the
situation deeper, and then modifying your research plan accordingly, it
binds you to a rigid structure, or forces you to go through months
waiting to have the new proposal approved. It would be interesting with
studies of how people have modified their research designs to be "safe",
to not challenge the review board, because they cannot risk having their
approval delayed. I'd also like to know about the implementation of the
ethics requirements across Canada, I know they are based on the
tri-councils who fund research in Canada, but it would be interesting to
look at how interpretation and execution differs across institutions.

In January this year, University Affairs
[reported](http://www.universityaffairs.ca/major-changes-proposed-for-research-that-involves-humans.aspx)
that there were changes afoot to make the ethics process more responsive
to the concern of social science researchers, whereas it traditionally
has been very much oriented towards the biomedical sciences and their
concerns. It will be interesting to see the changes, and how quickly
they trickle down to the institutional level.

Stian *Picture from [Office of Research and Sponsored
Programs](http://minerva.stkate.edu/offices/administrative/orsp.nsf),
St. Catherine University.*