Adherence to Ethical Principles in Research among Academic Staff in Universities in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract:

The study was aimed at assessing academic staff adherence to fundamental ethical principles in research in universities in cross River State, Nigeria. Three research questions were raised and hypothesis. Relevant literature were reviewed according to the variables of the study. The study adopted an expost facto research design with a stratified and purposive sampling technique to select a total of 500 academic staff from the two major universities in the state (Universty of Calabar and Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH ). A questionnaire developed by the researcher and was well validated and pilot tested using Cronbach alpha reliability estimate whose coefficients for the four sub scales ranged from.78-81 was used for data collection. Data were collected by the researchers and shall be analysed using simple percentage and the result showed that academic staff adherence to ethical principles of informed consent, confidentiality and beneficence has been very poor. It was recommended that staff should be trained on how to apply ethical considerations in their research practices. That papers that are published must show how ethical considerations are followed before accepted for publications. That this aspect of research must be properly emphasized in the research lessons.