Print1.3 Ethical Dimensions of Systems Research (EDSR)
Ethics of Systems Research
The Ethical Dimensions of Scientific/Systems Research (EDSR) approach describes how to recognize and evaluate ethical issues in research procedure and conduct, in the consideration of broader public and environmental impacts, and as values become embedded in research and analysis itself. Because common topics, types, and methods for ethical recognition and analysis are common across many cases of scientific research and technical application, it is efficient and helpful to develop a set of tools for critical reflection on various issues of ethical importance.
The EDSR Approach
As developed in the EDSR approach, three main categorical distinctions for research ethics used here are 1) broader social and political impacts of research (extrinsic ethics), 2) research practice and conduct (procedural ethics), and 3) embedded values within research (intrinsic ethics). By showing where and how to look for these types of ethical issues, the EDSR approach helps practitioners to anticipate where ethical issues may arise in a given research or application context.
| Type of Ethics in Research | Description |
|---|---|
| Ethics Extrinsic to Research - Social/Political | NSF broader impacts criteria, social justice issues, S&T policy, policy implications, improving representation and distribution |
| Ethical Research Procedure - RCR/Professional | Responsible conduct of research, professional codes, conflicts of interest, treatment of human & animal subjects, informed consent |
| Ethics Intrinsic to Research - Analytical/Technical | Embedded values, parameterizations, theory selection, error analysis, global assumptions, outliers, data cleaning |
Ethics Requires Comprehension and Critical Thinking
Research ethics is not a matter of memorization of rules about proper behavior. Rather, it is important to approach learning research ethics as the skill of being able to derive the ethics of a given situation, by asking similar key questions across multiple situations. While ethical contexts and possibilities are vast for a field like sustainability or renewable energy, we can still maintain a reasonable handle on things by addressing some core principles.