Conducting ethical research: protecting human participants through informed consent, confidentiality, and minimizing harm, and recognizing when an inquiry involving human subjects requires institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent approval before data collection begins.

What this topic is asking

If your inquiry involves people - surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation - you take on a duty of care. Ethical research means protecting participants from harm, respecting their autonomy through informed consent, and keeping their data confidential. It also means recognizing that studies involving human subjects usually must be reviewed and approved before you collect any data. In AP Research this is not optional politeness; conducting research ethically is a scored expectation, and skipping review can invalidate your inquiry. This page covers what ethics requires and when review is needed.

The core ethical duties

When people are your participants, three duties apply to almost every study:

• Informed consent. Participants must understand what the study involves, what will happen to their data, and that they can decline or withdraw at any time without penalty. For minors, appropriate guardian consent is required.
• Confidentiality. You protect participants' identities and information - anonymise responses, store data securely, and report findings so individuals cannot be identified.
• Minimizing harm. You avoid causing distress or risk. On sensitive topics (mental health, trauma, illegal behavior), the duty is heightened, and you should provide support information.

When review and approval are required

Research involving human participants generally must be reviewed and approved before data collection begins. In universities this is done by an institutional review board (IRB); in AP Research your school provides the equivalent oversight through your teacher and the required process. The trigger is the use of human subjects: if you survey, interview, run a focus group with, or observe people, plan for prior approval. Studies that use only existing, public data (published statistics, documents, media) usually do not need this review, though they still demand honest, attributed use.

Ethics beyond human subjects

Even with no participants, ethical research means honest practice: representing sources accurately, attributing every idea, not fabricating or selectively reporting data, and acknowledging your own influence on the findings. Integrity runs through the whole inquiry, not just the consent form.

Why this matters for the paper and defense

The Academic Paper is expected to show that you conducted the inquiry ethically, and markers look for safeguards that were clearly planned in advance. The oral defense frequently includes a process question, which can probe how you protected participants. Beyond the score, the duty is real: people trusted you with their data, and the credibility of your findings rests on having gathered them honestly and safely.

Try this

Q1. Name the three core ethical duties owed to human participants. [Recall]

• Cue. Informed consent (free, informed agreement with the right to withdraw), confidentiality (anonymising and securing data), and minimizing harm (avoiding distress or risk).

Q2. Explain why a study interviewing people about a sensitive topic must be reviewed before, not after, data is collected. [Short explanation]

• Cue. Review beforehand checks that consent, confidentiality, and harm-minimisation safeguards are adequate so participants are protected during collection; gathering data first means any flaw has already exposed participants to harm and cannot be undone, and the breach can invalidate the inquiry.