The Problematic Status of Research Ethics in Social Work

Background and Purpose: Research ethics provide important and necessary standards related to the conduct and dissemination of research. To better understand the current state of research ethics discourse in social work, a systematic literature search was undertaken and numbers of publications per year were compared between STEM, social science and social work disciplines.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify published literature using Proquest and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included: peer-reviewed, English, scholarly journal article published during the period 2006 to 2016, United States or non-specific context. Articles had to address the production, dissemination, application, conceptualization, and/or practice of research ethics and/or protection of human subjects. 12,096 entries were retrieved in total. A three-step process was used to refine article selection and a total of 1,410 articles were retained for analysis. Of the included articles, 205 articles (within social work, nursing, psychology and psychiatry) were also used for comparison and to rule out group inflation. 

Results: While many professions have embraced the need for discipline-specific research ethics sub-field development, social work has remained noticeably absent. Low publication numbers was noted for the years included in the study. From 2006 to 2016 the publication frequency of papers in research ethics was 1,409. STEM accounted for 67.85% (n= 956), with social science providing 32.15% (n= 453) and social work literature adding 1.3% (n= 16). To examine the possibility of group inflation publication numbers by year for three allied health disciplines (psychology, psychiatry and nursing) and social work were compared. Social work contributed 7.80% (n= 16) of the publications, while psychology produced 36.59% (n= 75), psychiatry 31.22% (n= 64) and nursing 24.39% (n= 50). Social work’s highest producing years were 2011 and 2013, with three publications (1.46% each year); comparatively, in psychology’s highest producing years 10 papers were produced, providing 4.87% of the total publications per year. Nursing provided 3.41% each year (n= 7) for the highest producing years and psychology had 6.34% (n= 13).

Conclusion and Implications: Publication numbers in research ethics have soared in the past 10 years suggesting an increased awareness and interest in research ethics as an important sub-field of study within many disciplines. Psychology and psychiatry were publishing at twice the rate of social work during their highest producing years. Psychiatry published at a rate of 5 or more publications in 8 of the 11 years reviewed, nursing had 4 years, psychology 9 years, while social work had 0 years. In most instances the comparison disciplines had at least one year of producing almost once a month, showing a strong commitment to research ethics as a discipline-specific study. All three comparison disciplines appear to demonstrate much more commitment to exploring research ethics from a discipline-specific point of view, while social work has remained fairly silent. There is a need for increased engagement, education, research and support for a new sub-field of social work research ethics. Further, it will be necessary to educate and support social workers in pursing social work research ethics knowledge and research.