Exam 7: Data Ethics

A study in which the individual responses are not shared outside the research group and cannot be matched to individual subjects by the researchers is considered to be

Professor Lilli Gans wishes to study the relationship between people's zodiac sign and their political opinions. She asks the students filling out her questionnaire to put their names on the front so she can ask for clarification or elaboration of some answers later. However, she promises that no one other than she will find out who gave what answer. Professor Gans is promising:

A student asks 27 of her friends to tell her their grade point averages (GPA). This student writes down only the answers and not the name of the friend with whom she is speaking, and she reports on the average GPA of her friends. This survey is considered to be

Suppose you want to survey students to find out what proportion have illegally used prescription drugs. In order to maximize the number of truthful responses, your survey should be

Any statistical study that uses human subjects requires informed consent. This means that

The basic ethical requirements for any study of human subjects are

Josh is enrolling human participants in a study that will test whether drivers stop more quickly for men or women in a crosswalk when the pedestrian is disobeying the crossing signal. Because no one would sign up for the study if he were to tell them of its dangerous nature, he advertises it as a "study involving a walk outside." What principle of research is Josh violating?

Any institution that does research with human subjects must be sure that the research obeys all the standards that protect the human subjects from harm. The entity responsible for this is called the

A professor distributes index cards to each student in his class and asks the students to write down what they think was the most important topic studied so far in the course, what is their favorite color, and what is their favorite type of music. The students do not write their names on the index cards. The professor collects the cards and reads the answers on each card to the class. This survey is considered to be

Study in which information about individual subjects is never made public is said to be

The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, is a major source of data on social attitudes in the United States. Once each year, 1500 adults are interviewed in their homes all across the country. The subjects are asked their opinions about sex and marriage, attitudes toward women, welfare, foreign policy, and many other issues. The GSS never releases any individual responses, only percents and averages for large groups of people. This policy is called

All statistical studies should follow the principle of confidentiality. This means that

Rice University's Institutional Review Board is an 11-member panel, with two alternates. It meets approximately nine times each academic year to review projects brought before it. The board's main purpose is to:

The loss prevention officer of a large department store chain is interested in finding out how prevalent employee theft is. She sends a questionnaire to 1000 randomly chosen employees and receives 700 replies. Those asked to fill out the questionnaire are told not to put their names on either the questionnaire or on the return envelope. Thus, no one in the officer's office has any idea who sent in which response. After the replies are processed, statistics describing the entire sample are published, but no one outside the officer's office is allowed to see individual questionnaires. This survey is

Research studies that collect data from people must follow ethical guidelines. Some basic ethical principles for these studies are

A Census Bureau report on the income of Americans says with 90 percent confidence the median income of all Kentucky households in 2012 was $41,724, with a margin of error of ± $419. The Census Bureau never shares information about individuals with the IRS. To do so would violate a basic requirement of data ethics, namely:

Before any study that uses human subjects can be done at a university,

Ethical standards for randomized, controlled clinical trials include

The student-run newspaper asks students to visit a web page and respond to questions regarding a proposed tuition increase. Only responses to the questions are recorded. Summary statistics based on the survey responses are used in an article published the following week, and no one outside of the newspaper has access to the individual responses. The newspaper's survey is considered to be

A professor asks each of his students to stand up one at a time and report how many pets they have. The students do not state their names. This survey is considered to be