Conducting a credible and valid study requires adherence to some general principles regarding both practical and ethical nuances. By using the example of a report prepared by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP, 2018), such aspects will be considered as informed consent, risk/benefit assessment, and the selection of the research subjects. These components of the research process form a sound background and help avoid planning errors.
Informed consent involves obtaining approval from the participants involved. Such criteria as information, comprehension, and voluntariness should be taken into account when engaging target members (OHRP, 2018). Each of the participants needs to understand the range of planned tasks to implement, including their individual role in the research process and the procedure for interpreting and processing data. Otherwise, the threats of violating ethical norms arise during the research process.
The risk/benefit assessment procedure is another essential phase of research activities. It implies analyzing potential difficulties and planning all the benefits to realize through research (Resnik, 2017). Moreover, the evaluation should be performed while taking into account the nature of risk/benefits and by carrying out a systematic assessment through stepwise analysis (OHRP, 2018). Without these actions, planning may be incomplete or inaccurate, which, in turn, is fraught with a discrepancy between the final results and the anticipated ones.
Finally, the selection of subjects is a principle that is based on fairness and justice. The procedure should exclude any personal bias and imply assessing the sample through the prism of compliance with the stated research objectives (OHRP, 2018). In other words, fair patterns must be applied to prevent the involvement of unnecessary or inappropriate subjects, which may cause ineffective or incorrect outcomes in the research process.
References
Office for Human Research Protections. (2018). The Belmont Report.
Resnik, D. B. (2017). The role of intuition in risk/benefit decision-making in human subjects research. Accountability in Research, 24(1), 1-29.