Ethical Best Practice
Compliance & Best Practice Information
This section contains useful resource documents and publications concerned with research ethics.
National Legislation
- European Convention on Human Rights (Ireland)
- Data Protection Act 1988 (Ireland)
- Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 (Ireland)
- Data Protection General Data Protection Regulation: information on the GDPR which came into force on May 25th 2018 replacing the existing data protection framework under the EU Data Protection Directive.
International Law & Ethical Best Practice
- Nuremberg Code (1947)
- Declaration of Helsinki (WMA, last amended Oct 2013)
- Belmont Report (USA, 1979)
- Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UNESCO, 2006)
- European Convention on Human Rights (1953)
- European Charter for Researchers
- WHO Standards and Operational Guidance for Ethics Review of Health-Related Research with Human Participants (2011)
- Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Specific Research Ethics Areas
- International Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC) Project (website which helps to understand, plan and conduct ethical research involving children and young people in any geographical, social, cultural or methodological context)
- Ethical Guidance for Research with People with Disabilities (NDA, 2009)
- Toolkit For Care Home Research (UK ENRICH - Enabling Research in Care Homes)
- Ethical Guidance for Oral History Research (UK Oral History Society website)
- Research Ethics in Ethnography / Anthropology (European Commission Guide)
- Research on refugees, asylum seekers & migrants (European Commission Guidance Note)
- EU Code of Ethics for Socio-Economic Research (respectproject.org)
Research Integrity Resources
- UCD Library Guide on Academic Integrity (Referencing, Citation, and Avoiding Plagiarism)
- IUA National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland
- The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (Revised Edition 2017) - a framework for self-regulation across all scientific and scholarly disciplines and for all research settings published by the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) and supported by the European Commission as the required standard of research integrity for projects funded by Horizon 2020
- UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) - UKRIO is an independent charity providing advice and support to the public, researchers and organisations to further good practice in academic, scientific and medical research.
Publication Ethics
- Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines
- How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers (COPE)
Ethics and Social Media in Research
- The Association of Internet Researchers
- Unicef Ethical Considerations When Using Social Media for Evidence Generation
- Social Media Research: A Guide to Ethics - University of Aberdeen
The Office of Research Ethics is not responsible for the content of these external site - if any of the inks do not work please let us know research.ethics@ucd.ie