Research and publication
Consent, competence, credit and honest data
- BCaBA
- BCBA
What the obligation is
The analyst code devotes a whole section to research, and it applies more often than people expect: evaluating a procedure with your own clients and writing it up is research, not just practice. The obligations are to follow applicable law and review requirements, obtain informed consent from participants separately from consent for services, protect confidentiality in the data and in what gets published, work within your competence, manage conflicts of interest, credit contributions honestly and in proportion to the work done, avoid plagiarism, and retain and report data accurately. Where research happens inside service delivery, the client's interests come first: a participant who withdraws must still receive appropriate services.
In plain language
Get proper approval and separate consent before doing research. Protect participants' privacy. Credit people fairly. Report the data as they are.
What this looks like
- Seeking review before evaluating a procedure with your caseload for publication.
- Consent for research obtained separately from consent for treatment.
- Authorship discussed early and based on contribution.
- Data retained, and reported including the results that did not work out.
Where people get caught
- Assuming that because the work is with your own clients, it is only practice.
- Adding a senior colleague as an author by default.
- Reporting only the participants whose data were clean.
- Reusing your own earlier text without citation.
If you are not sure
Ask whether you intend to generalise or disseminate the findings. If yes, treat it as research and get review before you start rather than at submission.
In the codes
- Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts Section 6 — How you conduct research
- 6.01 Follow the law and the rules governing research
- 6.02 Get formal review before you start
- 6.03 Inside service delivery, the client's welfare comes first
- 6.04 Obtain informed consent, and assent where relevant
- 6.05 Protect participants' confidentiality
- 6.07 Identify and disclose conflicts of interest
- 6.08 Credit contributions accurately
- 6.09 Do not plagiarise
- 6.11 Do not fabricate, falsify or selectively report
On the exam
Terms used here
Related topics
Written from
- bacb-ethics-code-2022 — Research standards
- sidman-1960
Written from the analyst code's research section and standard research-ethics practice, in our own words.
This entry has not yet been through independent review. Treat it as a draft, and read the official code for anything that matters.