RESPECT Professional and Ethical Guidelines for Socio-Economic Research

RESPECT Professional and Ethical Guidelines for Socio-Economic Research in the Information Society An introduction by Professor Ursula Huws, RESPECT Project Director Budapest, June 12, 2003

Why now? l New EU legislation on copyright and data l l l protection Development of European Research Area EU expansion Need to understand global processes Increasing inter-disciplinarity and multidisciplinarity Increasing international collaboration Traditional self-regulating communities of researchers are losing their force

What is the relevance of ISTs? l ISTs effect both the way that research is carried out and research content l New IST-based research tools and multiplication of information sources and delivery media make verification difficult l Digitisation of information facilitates new forms of plagiarism and blurs the boundaries between ‘published’ and non-published research l Speed of change may render traditional peer review processes too slow l Changing role of socio-economic research in EC technology policy development

Evolution of Information Society Technologies discrete products/ processes systems and networks an ‘information Society’

Discrete products/processes Typical roles of socio-economic research l ergonomics l human/machine interface l market research l cost-benefit analysis l facilitators/barriers to uptake l ‘social shaping’

Systems and networks Typical roles of socio-economic research l organisational impacts l interoperability/harmonisation l skill requirements l legal and regulatory issues l prevalence and distribution l environmental impacts l ‘socio-technical systems’

An Information Society Typical roles of socio-economic research l Paradigm shift across all socio-economic disciplines l multidisciplinarity and inter-disciplinarity l critical re-evaluation of existing models l across-the-board review of existing regulatory frameworks l qualitative methodologies to investigate (e. g. ) impacts on identity, family, quality of life l Development of new indicators

RESPECT’S GUIDING PRINCIPLES l Respect for Intellectual Property l Respect for Research Ethics l Respect for Privacy and Data Security l Respect for Professional Qualifications and Standards l Respect for Research Users

RESPECT partners l The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) UK l Social Research Association (SRA) UK l Centre de Recherches Informatique et Droit (CRID) Belgium l Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid - K. U. Leuven (HIVA) Belgium l Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ISB) Hungary l Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt (FORBA) Austria l Institut fuer Informations-, Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht Zivilrechtliche Abeteilung (ITM) Germany

Where we are today l Draft codes of practice (and background reports) on Data protection issues Intellectual property issues Ethical issues Professional Issues l A functional map of a multidisciplinary socio-economic EU research project

Where we go next l This conference marks the launch of a wide consultation process on the draft codes l Taking account of feedback they will be consolidated into a single code of practice l Open debate about how to encourage takeup and enforcement l Publish a User’s Guide to Socio-Economic Research l Widely disseminate the code itself

For more information Go to: www. respectproject. org