A new University Code of Conduct for Ethical Fieldwork is now available on the Research Support website.
It is a short set of principles and questions, accompanied by a toolkit of resources, to aid reflection on ethical and equity-related fieldwork challenges. Based on a systematic global review of fieldwork guidelines, it addresses potential gaps in ethics review processes such as working across cultures, conflicts of interest and safeguarding field research staff.
It has been approved by the University’s Research and Innovation Committee and the Central University Research Ethics Committee (CUREC) as advisory (not compulsory) guidance for fieldworkers across disciplines, methods, country contexts, and career stages.
The code has been featured in the Times Higher Education (THE) and Nature. It paves the way for institutions to develop more comprehensive fieldwork guidelines in the future.
