Ethical Issues in Supervising Undergraduate Dissertations

The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, it provides an overview of the ethical principles involved in conducting research with human participants. Second, it addresses the principles involved in supervising undergraduate student research. Third, the chapter describes several ethical principles that govern the research process itself. The ethical issues regarding supervision include establishing a contract between the faculty supervisor and the student, dual relationships, incompetent supervision, inadequate supervision, supervision abandonment, intrusion of supervisor values, abusive supervision, exploitative supervision, encouragement of fraud, authorship issues and conflicts of interest. The ethical issues that students need to know include issues involving the recruitment of human participants, informed consent, debriefing, deception, avoiding harm, confidentiality, risk/benefit assessment, vulnerable populations, and ethical issues related to research methods.

Keywords: Data protection, ethical decision making, human experimentation, human subjects protection, research ethics, research supervision, responsible mentoring, scientific integrity, teaching ethical principles, undergraduate research, moral reasoning, institutional review boards, graduate training, assessment of harm.