Mapping, framing, shaping: a framework for empirical bioethics research projects

Richard Huxtable,Jonathan Ives

doi:10.1186/s12910-019-0428-0

Abstract

BackgroundThere is growing interest in the use and incorporation of empirical data in bioethics research. Much of the recent focus has been on specific “empirical bioethics” methodologies, which attempt to integrate the empirical and the normative. Researchers in the field are, however, beginning to explore broader questions, including around acceptable standards of practice for undertaking such research.The framework:In this article, we further widen the focus to consider the overall shape of an empirical bioethics research project. We outline a framework that identifies three key phases of such research, which are conveyed via a landscaping metaphor of Mapping-Framing-Shaping. First, the researcher maps the field of study, typically by undertaking literature reviews. Second, the researcher frames particular areas of the field of study, exploring these in depth, usually via qualitative research. Finally, the researcher seeks to (re-)shape the terrain by issuing recommendations that draw on the findings from the preceding phases. To qualify as empirical bioethics research, the researcher will utilise a methodology that seeks to bridge these different elements in order to arrive at normative recommendations. We illustrate the framework by citing examples of diverse projects which broadly adopt the three-phase framework. Amongst the strengths of the framework are its flexibility, since (as the examples indicate) it does not prescribe any specific methods or particular bridging methodology. However, the framework might also have its limitations, not least because it appears particularly to capture projects that involve qualitative – as opposed to quantitative – research.ConclusionsDespite its possible limitations, we offer the Mapping-Framing-Shaping framework in the hope that this will prove useful to those who are seeking to plan and undertake empirical bioethics research projects.

Highlights

ConclusionsWe offer the Mapping-Framing-Shaping framework in the hope that this will prove useful to those who are seeking to plan and undertake empirical bioethics research projects
There is growing interest in the use and incorporation of empirical data in bioethics research
As Ives has argued elsewhere, some accounts of empirical bioethics are less about attempting to do something completely new, and more about finding ways to better articulate and justify methods already adopted in high quality, rigorous applied ethics [6]

Summary

Conclusions

In this paper we have outlined our framework for empirical bioethics research, which we have articulated via a landscaping metaphor and illustrated with examples from our Centre’s research. The three phases – ‘Mapping-Framing-Shaping’ – can be applied, we argue, to empirical bioethics research generally without prescribing any specific methods or bridging methodology. It might be useful to researchers who are in the process of planning projects, who need to find a way of describing the overarching shape of a project or programme of research in a way that will be familiar and acceptable to a range of disciplines, and yet retain the much needed flexibility to use whichever methods and empirical bioethics methodology is best suited to their research question(s).

Background