The group has built up core expertise in research ethics and responsible research and innovation through its work at the intersection between digital technologies and people. We believe that at times when digital technologies reach into every aspect of modern life, it is key to critically reflect on the ethical and moral basis by which our research is guided. In line with the leitmotiv of TU Wien - Technik für Menschen - we seek to raise awareness amongst technologists for the social impacts of their work and their responsibilities towards society.
All research impacts in one way or another on people, whether they are participants in a study, users of a system or simply on ourselves as the ones who conduct the work. Ethics is concerned about the wellbeing of these people and society as a whole. Ethical issues can range from protecting the privacy of participants to considering the psychological harm for researchers or critically reflecting on possible unintended uses of research results by others.
Generally, there are two aspects of ethics which increasingly get intertwined:
- Research Ethics is concerned about how we conduct our research in an ethically appropriate way.
- Responsible Research is bigger in scope and includes questions about the impacts of science on society and the environment.
We strongly recommend students and researchers interested in ethics to make use of the resources provided by the TU Wien Research Ethics Committee. In addition to those rather in-depth resources, we offer here our own ethics introductions we use in courses and projects:
- Core Principles - a set of core ethics principles to observe when doing research that involves humans
- Quick Self Check - a set of questions that can help to assess whether your research is ethically sensitive
- Ethics Document Template - a template for writing up an ethics statement
Resources
Resources
On this page we collect resources for further reading and example documents that can provide guidance in creating your own ethics documents.
Research Ethics Guidance
- AOIR Association of Internet Researchers Ethics
- Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) UK Ethics framework - very comprehensive and the standard in the UK
- Training and Resources in Research Ethics Evaluation (TREE): free online course in research ethics - focus on health research involving human participants
- Ethics guidance for Computer Science research by Manchester University
- Guidance on seeking informed consent and some tips for writing consent forms from University of Virginia
- Ethics Issues Table - Checklist in the context of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in Horizon 2020 (European Union)
- Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans tri-council policy statement of three main councils in Canada.
- Resources specific for ICTD/ICT4D research
Data Collection, Anonymisation and Data Protection
- What is personal data – A quick reference guide
- Anonymisation Guidance by the LSE
- Finnish Social Science Data Archive, Anonymization
- UK Data Archive: Create and manage data - consent and ethics
- Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving.
- EU’s article 29 working group: Opinion 05/2014 on “Anonymisation Techniques onto the web”.
Example Ethics Documents
- Research Ethics Statement (en), Parent Information Sheet (de) and Parent Consent Form (de) from the OutsideTheBox Project (Designing Technology with autistic children)
- Parent Consent from the ECHOES Project (Designing with autistic children)
- Consent Form from the eHome Project (deutsch)
Codes of Conduct
- TU Wien Code of Conduct for scientific work
- TU Wien, Informatik Code of Ethics
- ACM Code of Ethics, professional code of conduct
- IEEE Code of Ethics
Ethics in authoring and reviewing
Basic principles for human participation in research
Basic principles for human participation in research
Involving people in research: voluntary and safe participation
When human beings are involved in research, two basic principles are central from the point of view of ethics. First, the participation has to be voluntary. Nobody should be coerced or tricked into participating in research. It is good to remember that coercion can take different forms. In university settings, for example, it is important that students do not get the impression that they must participate in research of their instructors and supervisors. Similarly, in the social and health care settings it is important to clearly separate research participation from service provision.
Ethics Self-Assessment Template
What should be in an ethics self-assessment document?
The following structure provides a template to guide researchers through important aspects of ethics.
1) Context Provide information about your work / project / study to set the scene. Such information should include: funding, motivation, expected scientific outcomes, study design, methods used, reasons for this particular research being important…
2) Overall Ethical Issues Describe the ethical issues raised by the objectives of your research, its respective results or findings and the potential consequences of your research outcomes. Provide details about how the identified overall ethical issues will be addressed.
Quick Research Ethics Self-Check
Quick Research Ethics Self-Check
The following is a set of questions that probe whether your research is ethically sensitive and if it is low risk or high risk. The questions are adapted from the ethics self-assessment tool at the University of Sussex.
Will your research likely need a research ethics review?
It is highly likely that you will need ethical review if you intend your research to involve the following:
- Human participants (with or without consent)
- If you anticipate that the research exposes any person, participant or not, including yourself, to physical or psychological harm
- If you will have access to personal information that allows you to identify individuals or to confidential corporate or company information
- If the research project may present a risk to the environment or society
- If you anticipate any conflicts of interest
- If your funding body or other involved organisations require ethics approval
Is my research considered high risk?
If you answer any of the following questions with yes
, your research will be considered high risk and will likely require in-depth engagement with ethics procedures.