Ethics First: Reflections on the Role of Research Ethics at the Initial Stages of an Investigation into Taxi Drivers' Experiences of Crime

Abstract

The beginnings of a research project are not necessarily clear cut. This generates some interesting ethical issues for researchers during the period between the initial idea for research and its subsequent development in to a formal research proposal that can be submitted for approval to an ethics committee. This paper illustrates the point through a reflexive account of preliminary work towards a research project on taxi drivers and their experiences of being victims of crime. It explores the way that ethical considerations come into play during the early stages of a research project and argues that codes of research ethics need to give more explicit attention to researchers' duties of care during the initial ‘gestation’ stage of research.