Growing Concerns over Moral and Ethical Issues i Research

Abstract

Concerns over moral and ethical behaviour among researchers (both academicians and practitioners) have generated a lot of public discussions in Ghana.

In examining these concerns the author adopted a case study approach by discussing the works of a seasoned investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas together with other empirical evidences from the work of other researchers under the following headings as identified from the literature on ethics and moral behaviour in research; Informed consent, research fraud, confidentiality, anonymity, deception, right to privacy and protection from harm.

The discussions were done under two main schools of thought-Deontology and Teleology.These schools of thought notwithstanding, the role of ethics cannot be over- emphasized as the subject thrives on human involvement, trust and business referrals to arrive at reliable conclusions.  Besides, any deviation from ethical standards, therefore, needs to be thought through and justified extremely carefully.