The environment represents the social, economic, political, and technical forces which impact on the research process. Depending on the nature of your study, these forces may have a varying degree of influence on your inquiry and like values, environmental forces both shape and define the research context.

Mentors do not guide you through the research process, share their experiences and point out opportunities and obstacles but just help you search for information in the library or proofreading your work.

The network of regulatory bodies is small. Research institutions, research councils, community and professional boards, and sponsors of the research never impact the process of research.

There are three sets of governing norms: ethical standards, state and professional standards.

Ethical principles are intended to guide the behavior of participants and offer security and protection to researchers.

Confidentiality involves a clear understanding between the researcher and participant concerning how the data provided will be used. Confidential information implies that the identity of the individual will remain anonymous.

Ethics are complicated. No single law exists to regulate research ethics, nor is this particularly desired. Today’s ethics are rooted in both moral and legal grounds, and despite the best intentions of individual researchers and the collective body of research councils, institutions, boards and committees, problems still exist.

In addition to the ethical standards that affect all research, professional bodies have established standards of professional conduct that affects research. These typically apply to the utilitarian forms of research such as contract research.

In practice, each major research organization must have a research ethics committee charged with the responsibility to scrutinize every piece of proposed research and grant written permission before a study may proceed.

The responsibility for ethical research has moved from the sole domain of the individual researcher to the collective domain of regulatory boards, councils and committees who control both ethical and professional standards.