Ethical Considerations in Legal Research: A Guide for Dissertation Proposals

A law dissertation proposal acts as a blueprint for your law dissertation projects. Only after getting your proposal approved by the faculty, you will be able to proceed with the process of dissertation writing. Moreover; it will guide you throughout the process of dissertation writing as a road map. Even though; the length of a dissertation proposal does not go beyond 15 pages still, students get dissertation proposal writing services for their proposals to get instantly approved. 

Students who get dissertation proposal help don’t have to purchase online dissertation help as a whole because they already have written guidance on which they can base their dissertation project. Ethical consideration is one of the essential elements of any legal research paper and without it, the proposal will be incomplete. So what are ethical considerations in legal research? How do I write them? What is their importance? These and all other related questions will be answered in the following post. 

Structure Of A Legal Research Dissertation Proposal:

In order to successfully incorporate the ethical consideration section in your legal dissertation proposal, you must be affiliated with the basic structure or outline of a dissertation proposal. It consists of the following main sections:

• Introduction: This is the part where a student is meant to give a brief context of the topic and the need to explore it. 

• Research Aims: This part will reflect on the objectives of your legal research paper. 

• Methodology: You need to pinpoint the research design or approach that you intend to use for your legal dissertation project.

• Literature Review: This is the section where a student must add relevant references from authentic sources only. This is required to prove that you are making a good argument and have a solid stance.

• Ethical Considerations: This is an essential element of a dissertation proposal where you will state that the research that you have conducted has been ethically approved by the faculty according to the ethical standards of the world of academics.

• Limitations: You need to highlight any possible gaps or limitations of your intended research work.

• Time Frame: The potential time frame in which you will be able to complete your research and dissertation project as a whole must be stated in this section. 

• Conclusion: The whole legal dissertation proposal must be concluded in a way that it captures the essence of the project successfully. 

Importance Of Ethical Considerations In Legal Research:

You might be aware of the fact that ethical consideration addition in a legal research paper is an essential requirement but you might know why. Well! The importance of this section can be understood from the following points:

• It is through ethical consideration that the rights, dignity, and welfare of the research participants are protected. 
• It is through ethical consideration, that a faculty can decide whether or not the legal research project is safe and good to go. 
• If your research methods are morally disapproving then your legal research paper will automatically lose its credibility.
• No violations of human rights are acceptable, especially when it is a legal research paper so ethical consideration is an important aspect of a law dissertation proposal writing. 

Types Of Ethical Considerations:

There are various types of ethical issues that you will have to consider during your legal research proposal writing. Your research proposal might require the inclusion of all types of ethical considerations or only some of them. The main types include:

Informed Consent:

This is the form of an ethical consideration in which a specific group of people who are selected for the research work are informed all about the requirements and procedure of the ongoing research. Any related questions or concerns are clearly answered so that they won’t feel violated later on. Only after the participants are completely satisfied to take part in the legal research then the researcher can proceed to the process of research conduction. 

Confidentiality Policy:

A confidentiality policy is one in which a researcher has all the personal information about the participants but they have signed a confidentiality policy through which you cannot name or identify them. You can only gather the data with the help of the group of participants without displaying their identity.

Voluntary Participation:

As the name implies; this is a form of ethical consideration in which all the participants are completely free to take part or withdraw from the particular research work. This also allows the participants to even leave during the research procedure without any pressure on them. 

Anonymous Participants:

This is the form of ethical consideration in which you don’t need any personal data of the participant and you promise not to use it as well for research purposes. This guarantee is brought by not gathering any sort of personal information and only conducting the research process by keeping the participants completely anonymous. 

Potentially harmful:

In a legal research proposal, the ethical consideration in this type of consent is about the risk of reporting sensitive data of the individual that could breach his privacy. There are psychological and social harms as well but they are not related to the legal field of research conduction. 

How To Get Your Legal Research Ethically Approved?

In a dissertation proposal; a student is meant to provide the research design that he intends to use for the selected dissertation topic. When this proposal is submitted to the faculty, they will review the ethical considerations and possibility of the research work. If they find the particular research proposal acceptable according to the standards of ethical considerations then the proposal will be approved otherwise it will be rejected by the faculty.

In order to get your proposal approved, you must analyze all the mentioned ethical considerations and match those with your intended legal research design. If it fits in the category of ethical standards then go for it otherwise make the changes accordingly. 

Conclusion:

A law dissertation proposal provides a layout for your legal dissertation project. Among many other important elements of a dissertation proposal, there is the section on ethical consideration which is equally important. Your proposal will get accepted only after it is ethically approved by the faculty. Hopefully; the post mentioned above will guide the students effectively regarding ethical considerations.