CASE STUDY 1: Incentives and influence: To pay or not to pay? That is the question

Description of the

ethical issue

In which part(s) of the research journey is the ethical issue most relevant?

Understanding the dilemma

Ethical Reflection

Ethical Response (an example)

In a research project about eating habits and disease prevention a traditional authority has made it clear that there is an expectation of payment for all participants in your project; and also, of a support payment for the community authority group to facilitate the successful implementation of the project.

0. Research Culture

1. Research Idea

2. Team Development

3. Partnership Development

4. Proposal/Grant Development and Funding

5. Ethics Applications(s)

6. Data Collection Begins

7. Project Develops and Ends

8. Data Analysis

9. Writing Up

10. Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination

11. Translation into Practice

12. Legacy and Impact

Place: Research is being done in a context of extreme poverty. Participants must stop working (and earning money) for two hours to be interviewed.

Place: What meaning does the exchange of money or goods have in the local context? What is the likely impact on access to participation? What is the likely impact on honest and impartial reporting by paid participants?

The topic is discussed within the research team including local researchers, and the specialized literature is reviewed.

Based on this, the requirement of the community is validated and an alternative form of remuneration to the community is proposed to the ethics committee (consistent with the culture and regulation).

The alternative remuneration involves the dissemination of the preliminary results to the community in the form of a healthy eating workshop (with a brochure) and vegetable seeds. This alternative is approved by the ethics committee.

Subsequently, a meeting is held in which the local co-researchers (who use the language of the community) make the proposal to the community leader. The proposal is justified in ethical and practical terms and an agreement is reached that allows the research to begin.

The community leader also highlights that the interviews should be done in non- work time, in order to avoid harming potential participants.

People: The community leader has enough power to pressure community members to participate in the research or not to do so.

People: Who can help me negotiate with the community leader a fair form of compensation that is compatible with the restrictions imposed by the ethics committee?

Principles: Not paying participants hurts them because they lose paid work time, but paying them can be a form of exploitation or coercion given their financial need.

Principles: What is a fair, culturally compatible and ethically compliant form of compensation? When does money become a form of undue influence impacting the likely validity of the research data?

Precedents: In a previous project in the same community there was a payment however the current ethics committee thinks the delivery of money is a form of exploitation.

Precedents: Does the literature talk about this issue in this specific context? What about regulations or policies?