Research Ethics and Data Quality: The Implications of Informed Consent

TLDR

Research governance is rapidly evolving, raising concerns that new patterns may either improve or degrade data quality, depending on whether ethical practices lead to better or worse outcomes. The study examines how researchers position themselves between optimistic and pessimistic views on ethics and data quality, aiming to synthesize these positions into a balanced perspective that ethical practice is neither a guaranteed nor an inevitable barrier to high‑quality data. Using data from a study of researchers’ experiences with obtaining informed consent, the article identifies the various ways researchers position themselves relative to the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios.

Abstract

Patterns of research governance are changing rapidly in the field of social research. In current debates about these changes one issue of particular concern is the impact that new patterns of research governance will have on the quality of the data collected. The 'optimistic' scenario on this issue is that more ethical research practice will lead to better‐quality data, but a more 'pessimistic' scenario exists in which the unintended outcome is poorer‐quality data. Drawing on material from a study of researchers' experiences of dealing with the process of gaining informed consent from research participants, this article identifies the various ways in which the researchers position themselves in relation to the competing 'optimistic' and 'pessimistic' scenarios. It concludes by seeking to develop a synthesis of the two positions in which ethical research practice is treated neither as an automatic guarantee of, nor as an inevitable obstacle to, the collection of good‐quality data.