Learn from past ethical dilemmas
We’ve been running practical ethics surgeries, community workshops and literature reviews since 2024. Here, we’ve compiled anonymised summaries, notes and videos from the meetings. These should help researchers facing similar ethical challenges and dilemmas.
- Have a look through our Q&A summaries and recordings from past ethics surgeries.
- Visual notes, covering key points and discussions from all the community-based workshops, compiled by the illustrator Tamara-Jade Kaz:
- How have researchers navigated ethical tensions with institutional review boards in community research? Access the report here.
Template, tools, and resources
This is a practical tool to help researchers through ethical dilemmas that might arise in participatory research. The aim is to take a moment to step back and think through stressful and seemingly intractable issues.
Applied Ethics Reflection Tool (Jannesari 2025)
| Step | Prompt |
| 1. What’s the dilemma? | Describe it neutrally and then describe it emotionally. Note the differences. |
| 2. What power dynamics are present? | Draw on your theoretical framing and think about the different levels power operates on. |
| 3. Which principles are in play? | For instance, community ethics, bioethics, organisational constraints, equity vs equality. |
| 4. What are 2–3 possible actions? | Concrete, small-scale and achievable. |
| 5. What are the consequences of each action? | Benefits and risks (emotionally, organisationally etc.). |
| 6. What would “good enough ethics” look like? | A realistic answer to your dilemma. It doesn’t have to be perfect. |