Ethics & Society Review
Traditional research ethics often concentrate primarily on the risks to individual human subjects, neglecting the broader implications for human society as a whole. However, ESR believes that researchers have a responsibility to reflect on and mitigate the potential harms of their work, whether the research impacts society through field experiments, policy changes, or the adoption of new technologies.
Ethics & Society Review
Traditional research ethics often concentrate primarily on the risks to individual human subjects, neglecting the broader implications for human society as a whole. However, ESR believes that researchers have a responsibility to reflect on and mitigate the potential harms of their work, whether the research impacts society through field experiments, policy changes, or the adoption of new technologies.
Why ESR exists
Whether research reaches human society through field experiments, policy, or adopting new technologies, researchers must reflect on how to identify and mitigate the risks their work could pose. Reviews of research ethics often focus on risks to human subjects instead of human society more broadly.
Learn more about us and how we incorporate societal risks into the review process.
Our Impact
How the Ethics & Society Review process works
he ESR grant review aims to identify potential impacts of projects and work with researchers to devise reasonable mitigation strategies. In this process, Ethics & Society Review panelists recommend relevant literature, posing guiding questions and discuss hypothetical scenarios that may follow from the research, and offer potential mitigation strategies to the identified risks. Funds are released after the ESR panelists and the project team agree about what appropriate mitigation strategies for the project’s harms are. This ensures researchers have a plan for addressing the potential harms of their project before the research begins.
How the Ethics & Society Review process works
he ESR grant review aims to identify potential impacts of projects and work with researchers to devise reasonable mitigation strategies. In this process, Ethics & Society Review panelists recommend relevant literature, posing guiding questions and discuss hypothetical scenarios that may follow from the research, and offer potential mitigation strategies to the identified risks. Funds are released after the ESR panelists and the project team agree about what appropriate mitigation strategies for the project’s harms are. This ensures researchers have a plan for addressing the potential harms of their project before the research begins.
Effectiveness
The Ethics & Society Review is committed to evaluating the effectiveness of our ethical reflection process. Our first evaluation was published in 2021 and we are currently working on a follow up. In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of the ESR process, we are exploring how ESR lessons learned can be used in educational and industry contexts.
Collaborators
Supported By
