Hello folks!

I hope you all are enjoying summer! And looking forward to your new academic year. For me, I am moving onto my third year of my PhD. It seems just like yesterday when I came to Newcastle to start my degree. Oh how time flies by!… But, anyway, lets get to the real business – the reason why I came here. Well, partly because I am the PG student ambassador for Sociology and partly because it’s my duty to inform you about ‘Sociology’ at Newcastle University. Most of you might already know about the department because you study there and some of you might read it just for fun! If you (indeed) have read my previous blogs (and for sure noted that I am a research student) you might have also realized that I talked quite a bit about doing research in Newcastle (which also involves my research project) and the processes it involves. Let me tell you something, research is not easy and therefore is very difficult, but it is this difficulty that makes you want to achieve the impossible doesn’t it folks? And in social science research the most difficult thing (even more than writing a 100,000 word thesis) is to complete and achieve the pain sticking ethics. That’s right folks – its ethics. Ethical considerations are an integral part of any research that involves the participating of human beings. It allows the researcher to delve much more deeper into their studies to find out whether the project is ethical or not, or in a simpler word – ‘if you’re going to use human participants you have to make sure to respect the participating rights of your respondents without causing any physiological or psychological harm to them’. Now you may say, ‘of-course I will protect the rights of my participants!’, such as help to maintain their anonymity and confidentiality, however, things are not always the same when you are on the field carrying out your research! Research process involves a lot of thinking before hand and it is the ethics that helps the researcher to find out how they can achieve the trust and responsibility of their participants for the study without hampering their and their respondents’ safety. After all, if there are no participants, there won’t be any data and thus no analysis or conclusion! But it is also important to note that research process also keeps on transforming as the research moves on further. So what you have mentioned in your ethical form might not be the same later on while you’re carrying out the study. This change, however, can take place because of different individualities of the participants. You must have heard the saying – not all people are the same, some will be different’. But, nevertheless, the ethics provide a head-start to the researchers to think more deeply about their research process of their study. Believe it or not, I am still working on my ethics even after 1 and a half year! Oh boy! it can sure take some time. But, like I said, I now know (even better than I first started out) what exactly does my research involve and how am I to achieve it with the trust of my participants. It is always important to remember that, no matter how long the ethical process takes, it is the most integral part of your research project without which, no research can be considered as ethical.