Data is the most credible and useful resource for market researchers. But, when it comes to gathering, analyzing and utilizing market data, it is important to lead with ethical consideration. Ethical considerations are a set of principles that guide research practices. The principles include voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, potential harm, and results communication. So, why are the principles of ethical consideration important in market research? Learn more below. 

Voluntary Participation

Voluntary participation is the first step and most important step of collecting data. It is imperative that data platforms like WageScape have permission from third parties to collect and publish their data for clients to use for market research. Without permission from third parties to collect their data, the collection can be deemed unethical.

Informed Consent

Informed consent and voluntary participation go hand in hand. Participants should make their own informed decision about whether or not they want to participate in a research and have their data shared. All participants should be informed of the research purpose, methods, risks, benefits, and alternatives. With informed consent, participants can decide if they would like to move forward with the research.

Anonymity

To prevent personal information about the participant being shared, it is important that all participants remain anonymous. This also prevents any biases on the researchers’ part ensuring fair subject selection to study in order to get the most accurate data possible. 

Confidentiality 

Keeping all data collected confidential is also of high importance. Confidentiality ensures that the data on all participants collected will not be shared with outside parties unless they have authorized access to the data. 

Potential Harm

There are many potential harms that can come into play when conducting market research such as psychological harm, physical harm, legal harm, social harm, and economic harm. When conducting market research on the labor market, researchers are likely to run into legal harm, social harm, and economic harm if the above principles (voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity, and confidentiality) are not used properly. 

Results Communication

When it comes to analyzing data results it is important to communicate the results and the meaning of the research fully and clearly, especially if there are any uncertain findings. 

WageScape takes pride in abiding by all the principles of ethical market research. WageScape uses data from public-facing sources, it’s completely transparent. This means you can see data on individual jobs and companies with no lag time. The WageScape data platform was designed to serve the needs of world class data science teams. Teams using our platform spend more time innovating and less time collecting and grooming data. With billions of data points at their fingertips, it’s easy to turn ideas into reality WageScape. Learn more about how you can access WageScape’s ethical data here.