In Seeking a Research-Ethics Covenant in the Social Sciences, Will C. van den Hoonaard chronicles the negative influence that medical research-ethics frameworks have had on social science research-ethics policies. He argues that the root causes of the current ethics disorder in the social sciences are the aggressive audit culture in universities and the privilege accorded to medical research ethics. Van den Hoonaard charts the unique history of research ethics in sociology and anthropology and provides a detailed plan for how to unshackle research ethics in the social sciences from medical frameworks. Central to this plan is an insistence that covenantal ethics be embedded in the professional training of researchers in the social sciences. Based on decades of study, advocacy, and engagement with research-ethics policy at all levels, with a chapter by Marco Marzano (University of Bergamo), the book will be of interest to scholars, policy makers, and administrators who seek to support the full potential of social science research.

Will C. van den Hoonaard is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of New Brunswick and the author or editor of eight books. Most recently, he authored a series on ethics in research, including the acclaimed The Seduction of Ethics. His current interests cover qualitative research, research ethics, Bahá’is, human rights, and the world of map-makers. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and also the recipient of the 2013 Annual Award for Lifetime Achievement chosen by the Health Improvement Institute, Bethasda, Maryland.

Will C. van den Hoonaard's profile page

"The problem for primarily qualitative researchers, according to van den Hoonaard, is that a research ethics monoculture is expected to be applied to a research practice polyculture.... What is offered instead is not ‘the’ solution to a problem, but a strategy. Rather than developing a universal research ethics standard, promote instead principles that are flexible enough to deal with contextual and methodological variability. The term van den Hoonaard puts forward for this strategy is a research ethics ‘covenant’." Udo Krautwurst​, CAUT, April 2024 [Full review at https://www.caut.ca/bulletin/2024/04/book-review-seeking-research-ethics-covenant-social-sciences]

"Will C. van den Hoonaard makes a bold and important contribution to research on ethics in social science disciplines. I believe it will inform productive discussions in university ethics committees as well as being of interest to readers exploring broader questions about how the production of knowledge can or should be regulated." Fiona Nicoll, Professor, University of Alberta

"The notion is not to let qualitative researchers to have a free reign over what they do, but to encourage a culture of ethical training and reflection throughout our teaching and research that is required as part and parcel of social research practice. More, not less, ethical training and reflection would be required by research practitioners.... It is high time we paved the way for a new shared research ethics covenant for the social sciences." Antony J. Puddephatt, Symbolic Interaction, August 2024 [Full review: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/symb.1205]

"Van den Hoonaard has been writing about how the medical research community has negatively impacted regulatory and ethical frameworks governing the conduct of human research in the social sciences for decades. He outlines four pillars that sustain this practice: an aggressive audit culture, the privileged status of the medical research-ethics framework, the capture of social science in that web, and the conflicting perspectives in the social sciences about a possible remedy. His description of each pillar is thorough and grounded in real-world examples..." K. E. Murphy, CHOICE Magazine, July 2024 [Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.]