MGT 200 - Small Business Management: Top 5 Ethical Research Guidelines

1. Think from the participant's perspective.

• What information would you be willing to share, and under what circumstances?
• What would make you feel comfortable answering the questions that the researcher is asking?
• How would you feel if you work at Company X, and you learn that the information being gathered will benefit your competitor, Company Y?
   

2. Introduce yourself and the research.

• Identify yourself honestly, and explain your objectives for conducting the research, including:
  • how the information collected will be used.
  • who will benefit from the information.
  • whether or not participants and their responses will remain anonymous. If not, why?
• Do not misrepresent yourself as a customer or client, especially if seeking information from a competitor company.
   

3. Consider confidentiality and data security.

• ​Protect participants’ responses and personal information.
• Only collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) if it is absolutely necessary.
  • PII refers to “information that, when used alone or with other relevant data, can identify an individual. PII may contain direct identifiers (e.g., passport information) that can identify a person uniquely, or quasi-identifiers (e.g., race) that can be combined with other quasi-identifiers (e.g., date of birth) to successfully recognize an individual." (Source)

4.  Be careful with health questions.

• A person's physical or mental health status is sensitive information. Even seemingly innocuous questions about things like sleep or stress levels relate to physical or mental health.
• Avoid combining health questions and questions that ask for Personally Identifiable Information (PII), unless:
  • you are capable of protecting participants' data, and
  • you explain to participants how you will protect their data (see #4 below).
• HIPAA is a U.S. Federal law that aims to protect people's health information. If you collect health information, then best practice is to be HIPAA-compliant. (Tip: try searching online for this phrase: HIPAA compliance checklist).
   

5. You might need approval.

• The STAR (Strategy, Analystics and Research) is responsible for reviewing human subject research and ensuring compliance with federal regulations, state laws, and UC/UCI policies, to protect the safety and welfare of human subjects.
• If you are doing primary research for a class assignment or an entrepreneurial project, you probably don't need Human Subjects Review approval.