Experiences of Ethical Review : Perspectives of Swedish Researchers in Social Science and Humanities
Bülow, William ; Johansson, Mats LU
; Persson, Vilhelm
LU
and Wahlberg, Lena
LU
(2025)
In Journal of Academic Ethics
24.
- Abstract
- This paper presents the results from a qualitative study with Swedish researchers in the social sciences and the humanities. The aim of the study was to explore researchers’ perceptions of ethical review (i.e. the pros and cons of the system) and to what extent the system of ethical review could possibly be reformed to better accommodate research in the social sciences and the humanities. To this end, 7 semi-structured group interviews were conducted during the spring of 2024. In total, 18 researchers from different fields of social sciences and the humanities participated, including business, language studies, history, educational science, health and society, political science, psychology, human rights, youth studies, legal studies,... (More)
- This paper presents the results from a qualitative study with Swedish researchers in the social sciences and the humanities. The aim of the study was to explore researchers’ perceptions of ethical review (i.e. the pros and cons of the system) and to what extent the system of ethical review could possibly be reformed to better accommodate research in the social sciences and the humanities. To this end, 7 semi-structured group interviews were conducted during the spring of 2024. In total, 18 researchers from different fields of social sciences and the humanities participated, including business, language studies, history, educational science, health and society, political science, psychology, human rights, youth studies, legal studies, religious studies, gender studies, sociology, and peace and conflict studies. The results of the study show that the perceptions of the participants vary significantly when it comes to the issue of whether ethical review should be externally regulated. While some participants clearly favoured a system of self-governance, others say that ethical review should indeed be regulated externally for reasons of fairness and impartiality. Many of the participants say that the process of applying for ethical review suffers from lack of support from the Ethical Review Authority and that the bureaucracy of ethical review focuses too much on technicalities that researchers not always find relevant. They also report that the system is associated with fear of doing wrong and that some researchers sometimes deliberately choose research topics or methods that do not require ethical approval. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1d79df0e-2a79-4cf3-a7f4-75baaa26c528
- author
- Bülow, William
; Johansson, Mats
LU
; Persson, Vilhelm
LU
and Wahlberg, Lena
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-12-15
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Ethics regulation, Ethical review, group interviews, social science, Humanities, Research ethics
- in
- Journal of Academic Ethics
- volume
- 24
- article number
- 35
- pages
- 20 pages
- publisher
- Springer
- ISSN
- 1570-1727
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10805-025-09702-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 1d79df0e-2a79-4cf3-a7f4-75baaa26c528
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-18 08:36:12
- date last changed
- 2025-12-18 09:12:42
@article{1d79df0e-2a79-4cf3-a7f4-75baaa26c528,
abstract = {{This paper presents the results from a qualitative study with Swedish researchers in the social sciences and the humanities. The aim of the study was to explore researchers’ perceptions of ethical review (i.e. the pros and cons of the system) and to what extent the system of ethical review could possibly be reformed to better accommodate research in the social sciences and the humanities. To this end, 7 semi-structured group interviews were conducted during the spring of 2024. In total, 18 researchers from different fields of social sciences and the humanities participated, including business, language studies, history, educational science, health and society, political science, psychology, human rights, youth studies, legal studies, religious studies, gender studies, sociology, and peace and conflict studies. The results of the study show that the perceptions of the participants vary significantly when it comes to the issue of whether ethical review should be externally regulated. While some participants clearly favoured a system of self-governance, others say that ethical review should indeed be regulated externally for reasons of fairness and impartiality. Many of the participants say that the process of applying for ethical review suffers from lack of support from the Ethical Review Authority and that the bureaucracy of ethical review focuses too much on technicalities that researchers not always find relevant. They also report that the system is associated with fear of doing wrong and that some researchers sometimes deliberately choose research topics or methods that do not require ethical approval.}},
author = {{Bülow, William and Johansson, Mats and Persson, Vilhelm and Wahlberg, Lena}},
issn = {{1570-1727}},
keywords = {{Ethics regulation; Ethical review; group interviews; social science; Humanities; Research ethics}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Journal of Academic Ethics}},
title = {{Experiences of Ethical Review : Perspectives of Swedish Researchers in Social Science and Humanities}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10805-025-09702-3}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10805-025-09702-3}},
volume = {{24}},
year = {{2025}},
}