Science Inquiry: Ethics, Research Design and Methodology

Ethical guidelines and practices: role of ethics committees; guidelines for human participants (protection from harm, informed consent, withdrawal rights, deception, confidentiality, privacy, voluntary participation, debriefing); use of animals (replacement, reduction, refinement). Formulating research: aims, variables (independent, dependent, control, extraneous, confounding), hypotheses and inquiry questions. Methodology: research designs (experimental and non-experimental), sampling and allocation of participants, sources of extraneous/confounding variables and methods to minimise them.