Key Ideas

• Qualitative researchers' interactions with individuals and communities provide fertile ground for the emergence of ethical dilemmas.
• Ethical guidelines and principles bind all researchers to standards of ethical practice as exemplified in government regulations and professional associations' codes of ethics. Qualitative researchers contribute additional layers of ethical concerns emanating from the “researcher as instrument” concept that is part of qualitative inquiry.
• The axiological branch of philosophy is one that explores the nature of ethics and provides a way to examine ethical issues in qualitative research.
• The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979) issued the Belmont Report, in which they identified three ethical principles to guide researchers: beneficence, respect, and justice. These principles are expanded on from the perspective of qualitative researchers who situate their work with a goal of furthering social justice.
• The norms for research in the Belmont Report include the concept of rigor, defined in terms of valid designs and researcher competency, as a basis for establishing the ethical quality of studies. Qualitative researchers have expanded the norms related to valid designs and researcher competency to include the principle of authenticity, which encompasses the principles of balance (or fairness), ontological authenticity, educative authenticity, catalytic authenticity, and tactical authenticity.
• Members of communities that have been pushed to the margins of society are taking a more active role in articulating what they consider to be ethical research practices in their communities. Codes of ethics for researchers in education and the social sciences are beginning to address issues of culture and power differences.