Skip main navigation

Ethical research

As a researcher or practitioner, you have an independent responsibility to ensure that your activities are in accordance with ethical principles.
Person talking in an auditorium.
As a researcher or practitioner, you are responsible for ensuring that your activities follow good research practice and recognised scientific and ethical principles.

If you are studying or working at an institution, you probably also have some regulations you need to follow. It is common to separate studies of and with healthy adults from other groups of people. Healthy adults can consent to participate on their own. Things get more complicated when researching other groups of people. Remember that you cannot research children without their parent’s explicit consent. There are also strict rules for conducting medical and health-related projects.

In the following, we will mainly consider how to conduct regular projects with healthy adults.

This article is from the free online

Pupillometry: The Eye as a Window Into the Mind

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now