Q: What is the importance of research ethics?

Research ethics are moral principles that guide researchers to conduct and report research without deception or intention to harm the participants of the study or members of the society as a whole, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Practising ethical guidelines while conducting and reporting research is essential to establish the validity of your research.

You must follow ethical guidelines issued by regulatory committees in order to ensure the safety of the participants of a study, the public at large, and that of the researcher himself/herself. Following ethical guidelines will ensure that your research is authentic and error-free, and will allow you to gain credibility and support from the public. You must adhere to ethical guidelines also while presenting your findings in your manuscript. This will ensure that your article is plagiarism-free and also no unverified data reaches the readers of your article. Apart from that, research ethics fill in a sense of responsibility among researchers and make it easy to fix responsibility in case of misconduct. 

Related reading:

• What every researcher should know to conduct research ethically
• 6 Critical ethical principles associated with research in traditional medicine
• What do institutional animal ethics boards do?

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