What Do We Know about Research Ethics Scholarship in Political Science? A bibliometric analysis
On 28 April, we welcome Rebecca Tapscott (Visiting Scholar, PIR, Edinburgh) to SKAPE as part of our annual seminar series, discussing the following research with her co-author, Bart Gabriel (Graduate Institute, Geneva):
In recent years, political scientists have increasingly called attention to research ethics, as evidenced in revisions to the American Political Science Association’s professional statement on research ethics, calls for journals to require confirmation of ethical clearance prior to publication, demands for further resources and training for scholars, and a proliferation of publications on the topic. The intensification of interest in research ethics calls for closer scrutiny of this emerging sub-discipline and its position in the discipline as a whole. This article conducts a bibliometric analysis of political science and international relations journal articles on research ethics in order to understand how the field generates and values scholarship on research ethics. The findings show that, to date, scholarship on research ethics has been comparatively undervalued in political science and international relations, that it is disproportionately produced by scholars that are traditionally under-represented in the academy, and that it rarely appears in the discipline’s top journals. Instead, much of what is published on research ethics remains siloed, never joining or engaging in broader scholarly conversations. These findings raise important questions about whose labour the field relies on to produce knowledge on research ethics, how that labour is valued, and the extent to which research ethics reflects a substantive area of inquiry, versus a performative practice of a commitment to ethical research.
The seminar will take place online via Zoom (for link details, please email the Co-Directors – if you are already a member/associate member of SKAPE, then you will receive a Zoom link two days before the start of the event).