Ethical Concerns Of Social Research

            The purpose of this fourth assignment we were required to complete is to take a look at some of the ethical concerns of a social researcher. My intentions for this assignment were to contact a number of social researchers and ask them to answer a sequence of three short questions pertaining to ethical concerns they may personally have while conducting social research. My plan to my utter dismay did not exactly work out as I had hoped. In all I attempted to contact someone actively involved in social research at twelve universities throughout both Canada and the U.S. The list of universities contacted included eight American universities and four Canadian Universities. I chose the universities based on the level of research performed within them. The four Canadian universities I contacted included York University, Dalhousie University, St. Mary's university and The university of British Colombia. The American Universities I tried to touch base with were Harvard(ranked #1 in research in the U.S), Stanford(ranked #3), Colombia(ranked #4), Duke(ranked #5), The university of California-Berkley(ranked #7) and three unranked universities which were Princeton, Mississippi State university and Southern Illinois University. The unfortunate reality of my attempt to contact people from these universities can now be seen as an almost complete failure. Out of all the aforementioned universities I was able to conduct a successful interview with only one. Unfortunately my long distance capabilities were extremely limited and because of long periods of being kept on hold in hopes of being transferred to someone that could help me along with discussions with receptionist after receptionist I was forced to halt my research at only one interview. I was able to speak with an appropriate source at four of the universities however these people were less than willing to provide me with any help. To my astonishment one professor who practices at the university of British Colombia in the political science department responded to me in a highly childish manner.