That’s the title of a wonderful new book by Anna Josephson and Jeff Michler of the University of Arizona who cover the ethics related to the entirety of the research process, from early research ideas to the dissemination of research findings on social media and interacting with policy makers, and everything in between.
When I was asked by Anna and Jeff to blurb the book, I wrote after I finished reading an advance copy that “[i]n a book that is as broad as it is deep, [the authors] set the standard for what constitutes ethical research in applied economics.”
I finished reading it, and I stand by that assessment. A lot of academic writing is excessively narrow, often out of a desire by authors to establish themselves as experts. Conversely, when academics try to make broader statements, they tend to not delve too deeply about the issues involved. Anna and Jeff have managed to cover a wide range of topics, and they cover nearly each and every one of those topics at depth. This is a book which I wish I would have been able to read when I was a first-year PhD student thinking about research topics in-between problem sets and exams.