ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad picture of the many angles of ethical consideration involved in conducting and publishing Behavioural Accounting Research. Topics include examining the importance and history of ethics review, discussing ethical issues involved in the publication process and delving into a set of specific issues associated with research design ethics. The chapter is designed with two main purposes: (a) to provide an overview for those who are new to Behavioural Accounting Research and (b) to serve as a reference for more seasoned researchers. Specifically, this chapter discusses the need for ethics review by highlighting several classic experiments that prompted policymakers and scholars to examine research practices. We also catalogue the multiple governmental and institutional sources for ethics review guidelines in the United States, with references to sources for researchers in other countries. In addition, this chapter examines potential ethical issues involved in the publication process for authors, reviewers and editors. Finally, we identify several key issues that present ethical questions for authors, including deception, priming, debriefing, hypothesizing with results and data collection and privacy issues. In this discussion, we review potential concerns and provide suggestions for avoiding ethical pitfalls during the design, data collection and review process.
