Ethics and the Research Student Struggle

Havn’t written on the blog much lately, mainly due to the lack of anything to write about and also the lack of motivation after doing PhD stuff all day.

I’ve just finished collecting and printing out the replies to the survey i conducted related to my PhD work. The lack of response was a bit dissapointing and i only got a total of 3 replies from a CQU wide email i sent out. After applying for an extension to the ethics approval, i sent out personal emails direct to people i knew would be good to take the survey. The response was a bit better and in total ive got around 20 replies. Still, not as good as id have hoped but theres not much i can do about it.

So next on the agenda is the silly ethics report i have to do which basically is a summary of the results and a big page of questions i need to answer in regards to whether anyone was hurt or got unforeseen side affects etc etc, all of which dont relate in the elast to my survey… its not like im testing a new drug or anything… just a few questions about a computer system…

The whole ethics thing is a pain in the butt. Before i can even talk to anyone or ask their opinion i have to fill out an application form, the application for deals with all sorts of things – none of which relate to me. If would be perfect if i was testing new drugs or something but all i wanted to do was talk to some people. *sigh*

So yeah, thats what ive been doing. Ethics report is due at the end of September.