Creeping Ethical Regulation and the Strangling of Research

CANADIAN INSTITUTES OF HEALTH RESEARCH, NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA, SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA (1998) Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. (with 2000, 2002 and 2005 amendments). Available at (accessed 18.10.10): <http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/English/policystatement/introduction.cfm>

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (2005). Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, Second edition. Available at (accessed 18.10.10): <http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4122427.pdf>

DINGWALL R. (2006a) ‘An exercise in fatuity: research governance and the emasculation of HSR.’ Journal of Health Services Research Policy 11(4): 193–4

DINGWALL R. (2006b) ‘Confronting the anti-democrats: the unethical nature of ethical regulation of social science: Summary of Plenary Address to Annual BSA Medical Sociology Group Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, September 2006.’, Medical Sociology Online, 1: 51–8.

DINGWALL R. (2007) ‘Turn off the oxygen…’ Law and Society Review 41(4): 787–95.

ESRC (2005) Research Ethics Framework Swindon: ESRC <http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/ESRC_Re_Ethics_Frame_tcm6-11291.pdf>

ESRC (2010) Framework for Research Ethics Swindon: ESRC <http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/Framework%20for%20Research%20Ethics%202010_tcm6-35811.pdf> (accessed August 2010).

HAGGERTY K. (2004) ‘Ethics creep: governing social science research in the name of ethics.’ Qualitative Sociology 27(4): 391–414.

HAMMERSLEY M. (2006) ‘Are ethics committees ethical?’ Qualitative Researcher 2: 4–10.

HAMMERSLEY M. (2008) ‘Troubling criteria: a critical commentary on Furlong and Oancea's framework for assessing educational research.’ British Educational Research Journal, 34(6): 747–762.

HAMMERSLEY M. (2009) ‘Against the ethicists: on the evils of ethical regulation.’ International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 12(3): 211–225.

HAMMERSLEY M. (2010) Introduction, in Methodology Who Needs It?, London, Sage.

STANLEY L. , and Wise S. (2010) ‘The ESRC's 2010 Framework for Research Ethics: Fit for Purpose?, Sociological Research Online Volume 15, Issue 4 <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/15/4/12.html>.

UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH INTEGRITY OFFICE <http://www.ukrio.org/sites/ukrio2/the_programme_of_work/live_document___code_of_practice_for_research.cfm>

WARWICK D. (1982) ‘Types of harm in social research’, in Beauchamp T. , Faden R. , Wallace R. , and Walters L. (Eds.), Ethical Issues in Social Science Research, Baltimore MD, Johns Hopkins University Press.