Ethical Standards in the Professions

As educators and researchers, we recognize three sets of obligations:

• (1) the requirement to adhere to the federal regulations governing human subjects research, through the IRB system;
• (2) the need to conduct our professional work in a fashion that is consistent with the highest professional ethical standards; and
• (3) the necessity to include ethical topics in our classroom teaching.

Historically, the professions have provided guidance with respect to (2) and (3). They have been active in promoting ethical conduct among their members, and have been authoritative is delimiting ethical professional practice, as well as providing guidance on the transmission of professional skills.

Professions still serve this function. This section includes codes of ethical conduct from social science professional organizations; codes of ethical conduct from consultancy related organizations (these may to be useful in providing guidance for professional practicum "capstone" projects); resources that speak to pressing professional ethical issues that are not well-covered in an IRB-type framework; and resources relating to ethics education.