Ethics and Equity: Addressing Violations of the Belmont Report principles for research staff

Abstract

Particularly in development research, data is often collected in settings characterised by high deprivation, risk and power asymmetries, which aggravates working conditions of research staff. This perspectives article introduces a novel conceptual framework that identifies ethical challenges, failures and potential solutions. It is based on an analysis of 57 semi-structured interviews with research staff across hierarchies, world regions, gender and institutions. We find that the research environments in the ‘Global South’ often pose particular challenges to research staff and if not addressed can be harmful in terms of insecurity, sexual harassment, emotional distress, exploitative employment conditions and discrimination. Addressing ethical failures in research requires change across different levels, with a particular focus on alleviating structural asymmetries as a key driver of ethical challenges. Our findings provide a toolkit to (i) ensure the wellbeing of research staff, (ii) improve the ethical integrity of empirical research, and (iii) increase the rigour of data.