Ethics on the Web - A Brief Guide to Resources
What examples of different approaches to ethical governance are available on the web? The amount of material now available on the web to support ethical governance of anthropological research is now considerable. In this section we have assembled a broad range of materials that might give an idea of the different approaches taken to ethical governance in different places and [missing text/faulty formatting in original doc]
prepared by Bob Simpson and Isobel Davies.
Anthropological Ethics
American Anthropological Association
Not surprisingly, the most comprehensive statements relating to the conduct of practicing anthropologists are to be found in the USA. As the largest representative body of anthropologists in the world, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) has provided an extensive range of materials relating to its code of ethics. Material describing voting, balloting, resolutions and the democratic machinery of the AAA will be of interest to those wanting to understand the process of reaching large-scale consensus on such a statement. In keeping with the shift in recent years towards an educational rather than a regulatory role, the AAA has provided a very useful set of briefing papers on how to deal with ethical dilemmas in the field.
- ‘Committee on Ethics Statements’:
- More AAA links related to Code of Ethics:
- Join the online discussion of the current Code of Ethics
- Ethics Code
- AAA Statements on Ethics
- Final Report of the Commission to Review the AAA Statement on Ethics
- CoE Briefing Papers on Fieldwork Dilemmas
- Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology
- Case 9: "Hot" Gifts
- Ethics Committee
- The Committee on Ethics: Past, Present and Future
- Teaching Ethics:
The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA)
Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA)
National Codes and Guidelines
In addition to the United States, many countries have now established their own professional and ethical codes for anthropologists. The World Council of Anthropological Associations has recently established its own Ethics Taskforce, which has set about reviewing and systematizing these codes. Also, see the Ethics Network of the European Association of Anthropologists (EASA). The following are associations that refer to ethics on their web pages:
- ABA Brazilian Anthropological Association (Associao Brasileira de Antropologia)
- Association Francaise d’Ethnologie et d’Anthropologie
- Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK & the Commonwealth
- Australian Anthropological Society
- Canadian Anthropological Society
- New Zealand Association of Social Anthropology (NZASA)
- Anthropology Southern Africa
Related Associations and their Codes
Although anthropologists will look primarily to their own codes for guidance, there are numerous codes in cognate disciplines that may be of interest. These may need to be consulted if research is being carried out on a topic related to anthropology or in circumstances when one is working in a collaborative project with colleagues who operate under a different ethical code.
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science Ethics Report
- American Folklore Society (AFS)
- American Political Science Association (APSA)
- American Association of Physical Anthropologists ethics committee
- American Psychological Association
- American Sociological Association
- Archaeological Institute of America (AlA)
- British Sociological Association
- Canadian Sociological Association
- International Council of Museums (ICOM)
- International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE) Code of Ethics
- The Society for Economic Botany guidelines for professional ethics
- The Linguistic Society of America
- Museums Association
- National Association of Social Workers
- National Council on Ethics in Human Research (Canada)
- The National Committee for Research (Canada)
- Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH; Canada)
- The World Archaeological Congress
Other resources
- Belmont Report (Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, April 18, 1979)
- Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (the ‘Common Rule’)
- The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioural Research (April 18, 1979)
- The Nuremberg Code
- WMA Declaration of Helsinki (Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects)
- The Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia
- Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, the University of Birmingham, UK
- Genethics.ca - A comprehensive 'Genetics & Ethics' page
- Human Genome Diversity Project
- (Declaration of Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere Regarding the Genome Diversity Project)
- Human Genome Diversity Project (Model Ethical Protocol for Collecting DNA Samples)
- National Human Genome Research Institute (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program)
- The Hastings Center - The oldest research institute (founded 1969) with an explicitly ethics focus. Specialises in ethical questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment.
- Institute of Global Ethics
- Nuffield Council On Bioethics
- The Wellcome Trust
- Biomedical Ethics Research Initiative wide range of research publications in the field of biomedical ethics
