The network is supported by the School of International Development (DEV) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and is organising a panel at the EADI-DSA General Conference on Wednesday 21 September 2011 and a seminar series in autumn/winter 2011 at UEA London (102 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EZ http://www.uea.ac.uk/london/about/londonlocation)

Background

There has recently been greater emphasis on ethics in development research with widespread adoption of medical models focused largely on protection of subjects, for example, informants, vulnerable groups, or those in conflict/post disaster situations. In this panel we will invite discussion not only of these issue, but also of other dimensions which seem to us to be relatively neglected, namely obligations to society, funders and employers, and peers (development practitioners, policymakers and researchers). These include the obligation to do non-trivial and beneficent research; to maintain and share accounts of research practice which affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the data; and to be clear with funders about the open-ended nature of research and researchers’ additional responsibilities to society, research participants, and peers (see BSA guidelines 2003). There will be a particular focus on ethical dissemination, publication, and advocacy, and replication and reinterpretation of quantitative and qualitative studies.

The questions that motivate this initiative derive in part from concerns with reporting of quantitative work where errors in data processing or analysis and/ or data ‘massaging’ are difficult to detect in the review process. This concern is embodied in the growing, but not always popular, practice of replication of quantitative analyses requiring timely availability of data and code from authors in order to understand the details of what has been done. There is often reluctance to make these materials available for various reasons. In some cases data must be paid for; in others the issue is around making computer code available in intelligible formats; however, interest in replication should be encouraged, notwithstanding the apparent reluctance of journals to publish these sorts of papers (but see the replication section of the Journal of Social and Economic Measurement). These concerns led to consideration of appropriate procedures for ensuring proper practice with regard to reporting the quantitative and qualitative components of mixed methods studies. For example, providing journal editors, funders and data users with protocols that are detailed enough to allow audits of internal and external validity as well as ethical conduct. The growth in qualitative as well as quantitative archiving, e.g. see http://www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/ brings these issues to the fore since, for archived data to be usable, they need to be accompanied by a robust methodological account reflecting openly on the challenges of data production and processing in so far as they might affect the validity of future analyses.

Thus the opportunity to work with data in an informed manner is part of the ethical obligation to peers as well as funders. Additionally, the recent emphasis on evidence-based policy making by the UK Department for International Development mean it is important to ensure that quantitative and qualitative studies make full disclosure of their methods of data collection and analysis, especially if these involved working with other people’s field notes or with transcripts no longer in their original language.

The line-up for the EADI-DSA panel (Wednesday 21^st September) is as follows:

Slot 1: Research Ethics, Replication and Reanalysis in Economic and Social Research
Research and publication ethics: dealing with and preventing discomfort, Irene Hames, Committee on Publication Ethics, UK irene.hames@gmail.com]
Replications Sachs and Warner, Professor Graham Davis, Colorado School of Mines, USA g.davis@mines.edu
Impact heterogeneity of microfinance and informal sector borrowing in Bangladesh, Dr Maren Duvendack, Overseas Development Institute m.duvendack@odi.org.uk
Discussant: Richard Palmer-Jones, University of East Anglia, r.palmer-jones@uea.ac.uk

Slot 2: Qualitative and Mixed Methods
Epistemology and ethics in data sharing and analysis: a critical overview, Professor Joanna Bornat, ESRC Timescapes, University of Leeds j.bornat@open.ac.uk
Who is research for? Temporality and ethics in qualitative longitudinal research, Dr Rob Macmillan, Director, Real Times, University of Birmingham r.macmillan@tsrc.ac.uk
Going back to restudy communities: Opportunities and pitfalls, Prof. Graham Crow, University of Southampton, UK G.P.Crow@soton.ac.uk
Discussant: Laura Camfield, University of UEA, l.camfield@uea.ac.uk

Conference blogs can be viewed at http://headsupfordevelopment.tumblr.com/

The seminar series comprises four Friday afternoon sessions addressing:

i. Research Ethics in Economic and Social Research, 21st October;

This opening session covers a range of topics relating to professional practice, including publication ethics and the use of research evidence in policy making

Current speakers

1. Prof. Margaret Rees, University of Oxford - Research and Publication Ethics: dealing with and preventing misconduct
2. Charlotte Salter, University of East Anglia - Use of qualitative data in systematic reviews
3. Dominique Behague and Katerini Storeng, University of Brunel - Reclaiming plural forms of evidence for maternal health policy

ii. Sharing qualitative research, 25th November;

This will primarily address archiving qualitative research, namely researchers’ experiences of preparing data for archiving, of using secondary qualitative data, and of having their data used in this way.

Current speakers

1. Libby Bishop, ESDS/ University of Leeds - Challenges in archiving qualitative longitudinal data: Lessons from Timescapes
2. Prof. Joanna Bornat, Open University - Epistemology and ethics in data sharing and analysis: a critical overview
3. Ginny Morrow, Young Lives, University of Oxford - The ethics of disseminating the findings of social research with children: Practical Experiences from Young Lives

iii. Sharing quantitative research, 13th January 2012;

This will provide examples and discussion of replications of seminal analyses within international development, including impact evaluations, and analyse the political-economic processes by which these come to be influential. It will also discuss problems of publication of replications.

Current speakers

1. Vegard Iversen, University of Manchester, Richard Palmer-Jones, University of East Anglia, Prof. Kunal Sen, University of Manchester - "Of overhangs and legacies: re-examining the impacts of British Colonialism in India"
2. Vegard Iversen, University of Manchester, Richard Palmer-Jones, University of East Anglia - "TV and Modernisation? We don't think so"
3. Maren Duvendack, ODI – Replication, Reproduction and the Credibility of Micro-econometric Studies of the Impact of Microfinance and Informal Sector Borrowing in Bangladesh
4. Wendy Olsen, University of Manchester, Samantha Watson, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - Researching Children - Methodological Issues Arising from Mixing Statistical Inference and Qualitative Methods.

Three of these papers will be presented at a DFID-supported evening event on June 6th 2012 in London.

iv. Longitudinal, Mixed Methods and Action Research, 24th February 2012.

This will address the challenges of integrating different datasets/ data collected using different methods, engagement with communities/ individuals over time, ethics of research dissemination, the relationship between research and advocacy, and managing the expectations of funders.

Current speakers

1. Malin Arvidson, Third Sector, University of Southampton - Experiencing longitudinal research: ethics, intimacy and distance in research relationships
2. Andi Soteri-Proctor and Rebecca Taylor, TSRC - A big ask: recruiting organisational case studies to the Real Times project and keeping them onboard
3. Prof. Graham Crow, University of Southampton - Going back to re-study communities: opportunities and pitfalls
4. Sarah Irwin, Timescapes, University of Leeds - Recruiting diverse data to sociological explanation
5. Prof. Ros Edwards, University of Southampton - Working With Archived Classic Family and Community Studies: Illuminating Past and Present Conventions Around Acceptable Research Practice

These activities are likely to produce a journal special issue and/or edited volume.

Contact:

Dr Laura Camfield, University of East Anglia, l.camfield@uea.ac.uk
Dr Richard Palmer-Jones, University of East Anglia, r.palmer-jones@uea.ac.uk

Laura Camfield’s time on this project was part-funded by the ESRC Comparative Cross-national Research Initiative (RES-239-25-0006, Developing and refining methods for comparative cross-national research on poverty and vulnerability...)