An ethic of analysis: an argument for critical analysis of research interviews as an ethical practice

Affiliation.

  • 1 University of Utah College of Nursing, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA. kristin.cloyes@nurs.utah.edu
  • PMID: 16717489
  • DOI: 10.1097/00012272-200604000-00002

Nursing literature is replete with discussions about the ethics of research interviews. These largely involve questions of method, and how careful study design and data collection technique can render studies more ethical. Analysis, the perennial black box of the research process, is rarely discussed as an ethical practice. In this paper, I introduce the idea that analysis itself is an ethical practice. Specifically, I argue that political discourse analysis of research interviews is an ethical practice. I use examples from my own research in a prison control unit to illustrate what this might look like, and what is at stake.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Clinical Nursing Research / ethics*
  • Ethics, Clinical
  • Ethics, Nursing*
  • Ethics, Research*
  • Interviews as Topic / standards*
  • Nursing Methodology Research / ethics*
  • Prisoners / psychology
  • Prisons / ethics
  • Qualitative Research
  • Social Class
  • Social Dominance
  • Social Isolation

Grants and funding

  • F31 NR07826-01A1/NR/NINR NIH HHS/United States

Ethics of Discourse Analysis

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  • First Online: 30 March 2019
  • Cite this living reference work entry

critical analysis research ethics

  • Meta Gorup 2  

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This chapter discusses ethical dilemmas and questions of integrity characteristic of the conduct of discourse analysis (DA). Following a general introduction to the ethics and integrity of DA, the text expands on three discourse analytic approaches: discursive psychology, narrative inquiry, and critical discourse analysis. The chapter presents how ethical and integrity concerns manifest themselves and how they may be addressed in regard to the specifics of each of these forms of DA. Readers are introduced to the basic principles of research ethics – such as voluntary and informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, and minimizing harm – as well as those distinctive to the interpretive and critical endeavors characteristic of much DA. These closely relate to questions of research integrity, and more specifically to the grounds of analysts’ interpretations, representation of research participants, and the place of discourse scholars’ critique and application of their analyses. The chapter concludes by calling for a continual and honest discussion of ethical dilemmas if we are to ensure that consideration of ethics becomes inherent to any discourse analytic endeavor.

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Correspondence to Meta Gorup .

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Ron Iphofen

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Gorup, M. (2019). Ethics of Discourse Analysis. In: Iphofen, R. (eds) Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_22-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_22-1

Received : 07 March 2019

Accepted : 17 March 2019

Published : 30 March 2019

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-76040-7

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-76040-7

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