Dear Colleagues,

As our field develops an increasingly large cohort of research
students, the way that advisors and supervisors deal with research
ethics is increasingly important.

A robust research culture requires solid foundations. What we do as
research teachers and as advisors will shape the culture of design
research for years to come.

The training and education we give to our doctoral research students
will also shape individual careers. The degree to which these
students are prepared to undertake research is in great measure up to
us.

The research culture we create and the students we send out will
shape the reputation of our field. Our work as advisors and
supervisors has great impact.

 From time to time, we all receive survey instruments and
questionnaires from students. When students ask for advice on how to
develop their research, I am happy to give it. When students ask me
to participate in surveys, I usually do.

There are often problems or mistakes in research projects, sometimes
even in the best of these. Some are major, some are minor. Given a
willingness to learn, these are no major difficulty. Mistakes are a
necessary part of learning. It is the business of students to learn.
Students who make mistakes and correct are also learning how to learn.

One issue is of greater concern than method problems. This is the
problem of research ethics.

Yesterday, I received an ill formed and problematic survey
instrument. The send list revealed that this survey went to several
other scholars active in design research. The inquiry involved some
form of comparison between participants labeled as "designers and
non-designers." I wrote to the student to ask a few questions. Some
involved methods issues. Because the survey involved personal and
psychological data, I also asked whether this questionnaire had been
reviewed for ethics.

The student wrote back an unsatisfactory reply that seemed strangely
evasive. The evasive response bothered me enough to review the survey
again.

A second reading revealed that the cover letter was badly formed. It
gave no information on the survey or its purpose. There was
inadequate disclosure of the project. The student signed by name, but
failed to give an academic department or degree program.

In a second response, I asked for more information on the project,
its purpose, and the student's work. I received an even more evasive
response.

I wrote a third time, specifically asking whether the advisor had
reviewed this project. At this stage, I asked for the name of the
advisor and the student's department. Once again, I received an
evasive answer.

A fourth query brought no response at all.

It developed that this student is a part-time M.Sc. student in
organizational psychology at one university while also registered as
a part-time Ph.D. student in design and innovation at another
university.

While it is curious that a design school has accepted a student for
doctoral work before completing a first-level research degree, this
is not my problem.

What I wish to put forward here is something that requires
consideration. This is the issue of research ethics.

I am bringing this case up to urge that you bring the issue of
research ethics to the attention of your students early in any
research degree program.

Some areas of design research involve mechanical artifacts or data.
This research is comparable to engineering or scientific data. Here,
ethical issues involve proper care in observation, records,
reporting, and the kinds of ethical considerations one must apply to
all research.

Some areas of design research require more. Many areas of design
research involve human beings, human organizations, and human
societies. All research involving human beings involves a deeper and
more demanding approach to research ethics.

An individual human being is the center of his or her own world. Each
human participant in any research project deserves clarity and
respect.

The distinction between objects and beings is simple. An object has
no consciousness. A being does.

All research involving human beings raises ethical issues. Any
research program involving human beings is subject to ethical
considerations. Some fields have developed careful guidelines for
research on human beings. These are well understood in many of the
research traditions linked to social psychology, organizational
psychology, action research, organizational learning, and similar
fields. Robson's well-known book on Real World Research has a good
section on these issues (Robson 1993: 29-34, 411). Robson (1993:
470-475) reproduces the excellent "Ethical Principles for Conducting
Research with Human Participants" of the British Psychological
Association. Many of these principles can be adapted to our use.

Many universities also have a specific research ethics review that is
mandatory for any research with human participants.

In general, good sense and courtesy are excellent guides to ethical
practice. When students advance to candidacy, deeper consideration of
ethics is vital. It is clear, though that a brief discussion of
ethics is important when research students start their career.

The student who contacted me has not yet begun research in
organizational psychology. No one at that university thought that
such a question would come up. I do not know what the situation is in
the student's doctoral program in design. Research training
supervision varies at design schools. It runs from no proper training
at all up to serious and thoughtful courses in methods, ethics, and
other vital themes and issues.

With our field growing fast and programs blossoming in many places,
our research schools face problems and issues long settled in the
research and teaching cultures of other fields. These issues often
come up for reconsideration and renewed appraisal, but they do so
from a platform of existing practice. In our field, many of these
issues are coming up for the first time.

Some issues are essentially local. Admissions standards, evaluation
practice, thesis formats and the like benefit from examining best
practices across the field, but they must always be decided locally.

Ethics is not a local issue.

Ethics involves the entire field, and every one of us in the field. I
invite you to consider these issues in your school, and to act
swiftly to ensure that your research students are given a short
seminar on research ethics within the first few weeks of admission.
If this student had had such a seminar, this incident would not have
occurred.

If anyone who does not work with human participants wonders about the
specific ethical lapses, they are 1) inadequate disclosure, 2)
refusal to answer basic identity questions, 3) deception by means of
evasive answers. The initial problem is minor. In contrast, the
failure to respond honestly to questions from a person who has been
solicited as a participant in human research is serious.

The individual case is of little concern to me. The implications of
such problems in our field do. I have seen enough similar problems to
realize we have not given deep enough attention to research ethics.
Normally, a brief note of potential problems in ethics is enough in
specific cases, but it seems to me that a general series of well
understood standards for the field would be helpful.

I am therefore taking three actions.

First, I am posting this note on a number of lists focusing on design
research and university level design education. I hope this note will
encourage consideration and reflection at the local level.

Second, I welcome any thoughts and responses others may choose to post.

Third, I am proposing that the council of the Design Research Society
appoint a panel on ethical issues in design research with a remit to
suggest standards for the field. I suggest that this panel be
international, that it should represent the full range of research
areas and fields, and that it include members who are also active in
the other organizations now working in design research.

We must consider many important themes in our swiftly growing field.
No theme is more important than ethics to a field that ultimately
centers on human beings.

With best regards,

--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University