In March 2015, the Academy’s Council formally adopted five guiding ethics principles for social science research and commended them to its member Learned Societies and the community of social science researchers.
The five principles are:
- Social science is fundamental to a democratic society and should be inclusive of different interests, values, funders, methods and perspectives.
- All social science should respect the privacy, autonomy, diversity, values, and dignity of individuals, groups and communities.
- All social science should be conducted with integrity throughout, employing the most appropriate methods for the research purpose.
- All social scientists should act with regard to their social responsibilities in conducting and disseminating their research.
- All social science should aim to maximise benefit and minimise harm.
These principles were the outcome of a series of discussions at symposia, a conference and meetings which took place between 2013 and 2015, led by an Academy Working Group of Janet Lewis, Robert Dingwall, John Oates and Ron Iphofen. Subsequent work by some of this group contributed to the PRO-RES project and its outputs, a briefing note on which can be found here.