Ethical codes per discipline

Ethical codes per discipline

Also within various scientific disciplines different codes are applicable. If you want to know more about ethical codes within specific fields, you find a few of them listed here (not exhaustive):


  • (Cyber)security research

    The Ethics Committee CIS (Computer and Information Science by faculty EEMCS) has the expertise to ethically assess and advise on (cyber) security-related research. They wrote a policy that gives (security) researchers and students clear guidelines for conducting vulnerability discovery activities during their research and conveys the University's preferences on coordinating with vendors to disclose and mitigate the discovered vulnerabilities.

  • Communication Science

    Examples of ethical codes within the discipline Communication Science:

    From the National Communication Association (NCA) a Code of professional ethics for the Communication Scholar/TeacherEthical

  • Educational Science

    Examples of ethical codes within the discipline Educational Science:

  • Internet and social media research

    Examples within internet and social media research:

    Expertcomments may be a useful tool for social media data collection, as it easily exports all comments from your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, YouTube, TikTok posts to CSV file. 

    Our BMS Ethics Committee made an outline of ethics issues and guidance using the above references:

  • Psychology

    Examples of ethical codes within the discipline Psychology:

  • Sociology

    The Dutch code of conduct for Sociologist can be found here (Dutch only)

    The American Sociological Association's (ASA's) Code of Ethics can be found here.

    The Statement of Ethical Practice for the British Sociological Association (2002) can be found here

  • Political Science

    The ethical principles for political scientists by the American Political Science Association (APSA) ethics guidelines ("code of ethics") can be downloaded here

    A recent publication about Research Ethics in European Political Science can be found here

  • Economy

    An EU Code of Ethics for Socio-Economic Research can be found here

  • Management Science and Business Administration

    The “Academy of Management (AOM) Code of Ethics”

    Chapter 5 'Ethics in business research' published in Business Research Methods by A. Bryman & E. Bell Ethics in business research (book chapter)

  • Ethical and professional standards on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics

    The ICC/ESOMAR Code

    The ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics, which was developed jointly with the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), sets out global standards for self-regulation for researchers and data analysts and is undersigned by all ESOMAR members

    ESOMAR is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the value of market, opinion and social research and data analytics. They’ve been providing ethical and professional guidance and advocating on behalf of our global membership community for 70 years.

    ICC (the International Chamber of Commerce) is the world’s largest business organization with a network of over 6.5 million members in more than 130 countries. ESOMAR is the global voice of the data, research and insights community, speaking on behalf of over 4900 individual professionals and 500 companies who provide or commission data analytics and research in more than 130 countries, all of whom agree to uphold the ICC/ESOMAR International Code.