Abstract
Responsible researchers with ethically sound research skills are fundamental to success in an ever-changing business and social world. Embedding ethics into research by students seems to be intuitively easy given tight, standardized ethical guidelines and rigorous ethical approval process in the university. In reality, there are Masters and PhD research students who feel ill-prepared when they encounter ethical ambiguities and complexities in the field which are unique, beyond what they had foreseen at the outset of a qualitative inquiry or were prescribed, advised and forewarned by a research ethics committee (REC).
 
 The aim of this conceptual paper is to discuss seven pitfalls of research ethics in a qualitative research voyage in order to educate and sensitize current and prospective research students. The seven pitfalls are: (1) complexity and ambiguity of informed consent; (2) embedding informed consent as a process rather than an event; (3) navigating the moral conundrum of unintentional disclosure; (4) dealing with deductive disclosure; (5) dialectic between participant`s desire for recognition and greater confidentiality; (6) researcher role conflict and (7) difficulty of embedding researcher reflexivity. The paper concludes that only research students who are ethically literate and actively reflexive in the entire research process are more likely to know whenever they encounter ethical pitfalls, deal with them properly; and ultimately entrench relevant skills to conduct ethically sound research. Highlighted are implications for research educators to develop research competence of current and future researchers. 
 
 Responsible researchers with ethically sound research skills are fundamental to success in an ever-changing business and social world. Embedding ethics into research by students seems to be intuitively easy given tight, standardized ethical guidelines and rigorous ethical approval process in the university. In reality, there are Masters and PhD research students who feel ill-prepared when they encounter ethical ambiguities and complexities in the field which are unique, beyond what they had foreseen at the outset of a qualitative inquiry or were prescribed, advised and forewarned by a research ethics committee (REC).
 
 The aim of this conceptual paper is to discuss seven pitfalls of research ethics in a qualitative research voyage in order to educate and sensitize current and prospective research students. The seven pitfalls are: (1) complexity and ambiguity of informed consent; (2) embedding informed consent as a process rather than an event; (3) navigating the moral conundrum of unintentional disclosure; (4) dealing with deductive disclosure; (5) dialectic between participant`s desire for recognition and greater confidentiality; (6) researcher role conflict and (7) difficulty of embedding researcher reflexivity. The paper concludes that only research students who are ethically literate and actively reflexive in the entire research process are more likely to know whenever they encounter ethical pitfalls, deal with them properly; and ultimately entrench relevant skills to conduct ethically sound research. Highlighted are implications for research educators to develop research competence of current and future researchers.
Highlights
As novel and sustainable solutions are required to address problems in the world, any effort to develop responsible researchers is less successful if some Masters and PhD research students fail to master the twin imperatives of being able to conduct ethically sound research, and ethically evaluate research done by others
There are ethical dilemmas or unforeseeable ambiguities in a qualitative research voyage, which are difficult to encapsulate in full on information sheets or signed consent forms administered at the outset of a research inquiry
As a potential way of addressing researcher role conflict, research students need to engage in a process of self-regulation and active reflection regarding each of the roles that they may have in a research context and explicitly report on how these affected them and others in the research process (Strauss & Corbin, 1990:186-188)
Summary
It is baffling to research supervisors and external examiners when postgraduate students are not able to explicitly and meaningfully report on ethical ambiguities in their qualitative research. There is an urgent and compelling need to fathom ethical pitfalls in research faced by students and disseminate this epistemic knowledge to all research students, research educators and any institution that educate and develop researchers. In this vein, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to discuss seven ethical pitfalls and challenges on the qualitative research voyage, and alert current, prospective research students and novice researchers to possible ways of dealing or avoiding research pitfalls without compromising research ethics. The paper encapsulates key implications for embedding research ethics
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