RESEARCH QUESTION AND ETHICS 2

Research Question and Ethics Research questionResearch question is one or more questions that specify the focus of research (O’Sullivanet al., 2016). The purpose of research is to address a given issue identified by the researcher. Theresearch may provide an explanation on why the issue is important, the benefits of addressing itto society and researchers, and […]

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Research Question and Ethics

Research question
Research question is one or more questions that specify the focus of research (O’Sullivan
et al., 2016). The purpose of research is to address a given issue identified by the researcher. The
research may provide an explanation on why the issue is important, the benefits of addressing it
to society and researchers, and the correct way of addressing it among other explanations. The
research issue is broadly identified as research problem. The research problem, however, is
usually very general and broad. It needs to be narrowed down in order to guide the researcher
when collecting data (McNabb, 2015). The research question narrows down the research
problem so that the whole experiment, from literature review to data collection and analysis,
answers specific question or questions either in the affirmative or in the negative (McNabb,
2015).
Importance of ethical considerations in public and non-profit administration research
There is little doubt that ethical considerations are perhaps the most important component
of research. Like all other aspects of our lives, there is the right and wrong way of conducting
research. Good research should adhere to standard ethical practices. These include maintaining
confidentiality, anonymity, and privacy of human subjects that are used in the research
(McNabb, 2015).
Confidentiality involves modifying or separating any personal information that a
participant provides from the data (McNabb, 2015). For instance, research data should not

RESEARCH QUESTION AND ETHICS 3
include real names of participants. The names provided should be replaced with aliases to protect
identities of research participants.
Closely related with confidentiality is anonymity. To keep participants anonymous, it is
important that researchers refrain from collecting data that has any identifying or personal
information such as the contact of the participants (McNabb, 2015). Both anonymity and
confidentiality are meant to protect the privacy of participants. Anonymity applies mainly in
quantitative research while confidentiality applies in qualitative research (O’Sullivan et al.,
2016).
Maintaining the privacy of participants is important because it protects them from
potentially harmful consequences of having their identities and related information revealed to
the public. These harmful consequences include distress and embarrassment, civil and criminal
liability, and even loss of employment (O’Sullivan et al., 2016). It is also worth noting that
research that involves human subjects cannot receive approval from institutional review board
(IRB) if it does not have enough measures that guarantee privacy and respect of the participants
(O’Sullivan et al., 2016). So it is important that research includes adequate privacy protections of
human subjects in order to get IRB’s approval.
Adhering to ethical practices in research also serves many other purposes. One of them is
promoting coordination and cooperation among the different institutions and people involved in
the research (McNabb, 2015). Without values such as mutual respect, accountability, and trust, it
is very hard to have collaborative work which is essential in non-profit and public sector
research.

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Additionally, it is important that research that is conducted by public and non-profit
organizations gets public support. That is the only way that they can get funding for their
research. Such public support cannot be built when there are questions about the integrity and
quality of research (McNabb, 2015).
Sample research questions
The data on the universities of the state of Alabama reveals some issues that can only be
clarified through proper research. For instance, it would be interesting to find if there is any
relationship between the fees students pay and their graduation rates or whether the salary one
earns after graduation relates to the fees they paid at the university. The following research
questions narrow down these issues for research:

  1. What is the relationship between annual average cost and graduation rate?
  2. What is the relationship between average annual cost of attending
    university and salary one gets after attending?

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References

McNabb, D. E. (2015). Research methods in public administration and nonprofit management.
Routledge.
O’Sullivan, E., Berner, M., Taliaferro, J. D., & Rassel, G. R. (2016). Research methods for public
administrators. Routledge.

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