Ethics are an extremely vital part of our research process. Each study is conducted with care of participants at the center of our methods, and we have support and approval from the Canisius College Institutional Review Board. I think of ethics in the following ways:
- We want our research participants to trust us and to feel empowered to provide their own point of view, so we are open about each step of our process. Participants are welcome to withdraw at any time, for any reason.
- We want to know what our participants think about the world, and so we set our own biases aside when researching and writing up our results.
- We carefully practice and train ourselves in interview, focus group, and observation techniques to assure minimal impact on our participants; if at any time participants become stressed, agitated, or unable to continue we stop and can provide recommendations for follow up if necessary.
If there are any questions about ethics, you can contact me at russellj@canisius.edu or the head of Institutional Review, Mike Dolan, at mdolan@canisius.edu.
