Contact Us
Ethics in evaluation
Applying ethical principles throughout your evaluation activities is important to helping you balance the goals and benefits of evaluation with the rights and interests of those being evaluated.1
Several organisations have developed their own ethical guidelines to cover the conduct of evaluation, including the responsibilities of those conducting and managing evaluations. While specific requirements vary among organisations, the following ethical principles are standard across all guidelines:2,3
Integrity
To have integrity is to be trustworthy, fair, and sincere when conducting and reporting on the evaluation. It involves:
- Being truthful in all aspects of the evaluation and accurately represent evaluation methods and findings– with stakeholders, participants, and the public.
- Ensuring sufficient evaluation team expertise and competence to conduct a meaningful and defensible evaluation.
- Disclosing conflicts of interest and effectively managing disagreements.
Accountability
To be accountable is to take responsibility for all evaluative actions, honouring commitments, and ensuring transparency. It involves:
- Assuming responsibility for the overall value and quality of the evaluation.
- Ensuring thorough documentation and transparency of the evaluation’s purpose, design, key decisions, methods, and findings.
- Being responsive to the unanticipated effects and consequences that may arise from the evaluation.
Common Good
To contribute to the common good is to act in a moral manner that benefits participants, minimises harm, and reduces inequities. It involves:
- Ensuring confidentiality of information, voluntary participation, and positive contribution to participants.
- Maximising benefits for stakeholders, participants, the public, and society at all levels.
- Minimising potential threats and harms to participants.
Respect
To be respectful is to honour the dignity, well-being, and self-worth of participants, and to acknowledge the influence of culture across groups. It involves:
- Meaningful and equitable participation from marginalised or hard to reach populations.
- Ensuring cultural sensitivity, and the acknowledgment and consideration of people’s differences.
- Ensuring actions are performed in accordance with the international principles of human rights.
Additional resources
- DFID Ethics Principles for Research and Evaluation: This paper from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) outlines the principals on ethical practice in research and evaluation that must be adhered to on all projects funded by the department.
- AEA Guiding Principles for Evaluators: This paper from the American Evaluation Association (AEA) outlines the guiding principles to be used by evaluators to promote ethical practice in evaluations.
- Ethics: These guidelines from the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) set out the procedures that need to be considered when assessing the independence of evaluation to ensure ethical requirements are met.
- AES Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Evaluations: These guidelines from the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) were designed to ensure ethical behaviour and decision making are incorporated into evaluation practice.
- Ethics Self-Assessment Tool: These tools and guidelines from UK Statistics Authority are to support an accurate and consistent estimation of the “ethical risks” of research proposals.
1 Barnett, C., Camfield, L. (2016). Ethics in evaluation. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 8(4), 528-534. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2016.1244554
2 BetterEvaluation. (2020). Ethical guidelines. https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/evaluation-options/ethical_guidelines
3 Biagetti, M. T., Gedutis, A., Ma, L. (2020). Ethical theories in research evaluation: An exploratory approach. Scholarly Assessment Reports, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.29024/sar.19