Submit Your Comments to the Ad Hoc Committee on the Protection of Human Subjects Report

The APSA Executive Committee requests feedback on proposed changes to the APSA Guide to Professional Ethics, Rights, and Freedoms, Section H. You can read the full report and text of the proposed changes here and comments from the APSA Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms here. Please submit your comments to ethics@apsanet.org by December 1, 2019.

Background

The Ad Hoc Committee on Human Subjects was formed in January 2017, and worked to identify broad principles of ethics relating to research on human subjects that can guide individual scholars in the design and practice of their research, inform institutional review boards about current standards and practices in political science research, and propose Association standards in areas of broad-based agreement. The committee’s roster and charge are available online here.

The Committee presented its recommendations to the Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms and the recommendations have been shared with the APSA Executive Committee. We now ask for public comment and feedback prior to possible adoption in the Ethics Guide.

The 11-member committee, co-chaired by Scott Desposato (University of California, San Diego) and Trisha Phillips (West Virginia University), met on August 30, 2017 in San Francisco before the APSA Annual Meeting. In an all-day session, they discussed ethical issues related to informed consent, deception and covert research, the security of research subjects, confidentiality, trauma, the embedded researcher as a participant in research, the impact of the research process on real-world events, the security of researchers and assistants, relationships with Institutional Review Boards, the responsibilities of faculty advisors, public official exemptions, the application of ethical standards, and graduate student ethics training. The committee also solicited input from members through the feedback tool on this website. Additionally, a survey was sent to APSA members in 2018. The draft report was sent to the APSA Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms in February 2019, who subsequently read and provide feedback and comments on the draft. Each of these documents – the Committee report, draft principles and guidance, executive summary of the survey, and the ethics committee feedback – are now posted for the membership’s review and comment.

Documents

COMMITTEE REPORT AND PROPOSED Principles of Ethics for Human Subjects Research and Guidance FOR ADOPTION IN THE APSA GUIDE TO PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS:

Note: There is no appendix; responses referenced in the document were incorporated into the main comment and feedback document.

Comment

Send us your comments and feedback on the proposed Principles and Guidance at ethics@apsanet.org by December 1, 2019. All member comments will be sent to the APSA Executive Committee along with the reports.