The ACSS seeks to spread the culture of research ethics among social science and humanities researchers in the Arab region. It encourages – especially the younger generation of scholars – to develop an understanding of, and respect for, the rights of research participants, the responsibility for research integrity, as well as the rights of researchers themselves to protection. Towards this, the ACSS advocates for changes in academic practices and institutional policies to ensure ethical approaches to research throughout all stages of the research cycle, from planning to data collection, to publication and dissemination.
Several factors have fueled ACSS’s interest in research ethics, including the lack of formal training in this area in Arab academic institutions and the fact that when research ethics are taught and applied, there is a heavy focus on biomedical sciences at the expense of the social sciences and the humanities. In addition, the ACSS is concerned that current regulations and guidelines in the region have been adopted from Western sources, without sufficient attention to diverse local and cultural contexts. Finally, current ethical regulations and practices do not take into account the ways in which political, social, and economic contexts impact researchers, the research settings, institutional structures, and communities.
In 2015, the ACSS launched its Ethics in Social Science Research Initiative, which includes a set of activities and programs, including training activities for grantees and fellows, small grants for individuals and institutions in the Arab region, an ethics platform (underway), as well as collaborative projects with other organizations to advance the culture of research ethics in the Arab region.
Enhance Research Ethics Infrastructures in the Arab Region
As a pilot program, the ACSS has provided institutional grants to Palestinian and Jordanian academic institutions and civil society organizations to enable them to establish and/or revisit research ethics policies and procedures within their institutions. Moreover, the ACSS is building a platform for Research Ethics in the Arab Region (work in progress), which will become a space for training, networking, and academic and professional resources on research ethics.
Strengthen Institutional Capacity by Mentoring and Training Grantees
Since 2015, the ACSS grants programs have included training sessions for grantees on research ethics by providing workshops specifically tailored to the topic of each grant/fellowship as well as one-on-one mentoring. In addition, the Small Grants Program on Ethics of Social Science Research has provided two cycles of grants to individual researchers working on various ethical conundrums faced in the field. Roundtables have been organized at both the fifth and sixth ACSS Conferences and the fifth Research Forum on the ethics of social science research.
Connect with Regional Network to Foster a Culture of Research Ethics
The ACSS is engaged in a collaborative project with Birzeit University, Palestine, and the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon, to promote research ethics in the Arab region. Our partners’ project activities include: a mapping of existing ethical practices, infrastructures, and processes with a focus on Arab universities (AUB); developing, hosting, and operating a learning portal on research ethics (Birzeit). The ACSS is also a steering committee member of the Commission on Research Ethics in the Middle East and North Africa (REMENA), in collaboration with Columbia University, which gives special attention to the North-South dimension of ethics in research collaborations. The ACSS is also in discussions with the Center for Lebanese Studies to collaborate on training and mentoring in research ethics.
Research ethics is not a static set of rules; it is a situational, continuous, reflexive practice shaped by the communities we study and the contexts we inhabit. To spark deeper engagement with these complexities, the ACSS Research Ethics Initiative has started by publishing a series of original papers from leading regional scholars. These reflection pieces are more than just academic resources—they are invitations to dialogue. We invite students, early-career researchers, academics, and individuals interested in research ethics to read, reflect, and contribute to the ongoing discussion on the ethics of social sciences and humanities research in the Arab region.
Mai Abu Moghli critiques unethical research practices and neocolonial entanglements of Western funding in North-South collaborations. The paper draws on the experiences of scholars to propose a politically engaged, decolonial praxis rooted in equity and justice.
Hana Sleiman argues that archival research must be treated with the same ethics of care as research with human subjects. The paper engages with the question: how do we write about the lives of the deceased with the same sensitivity, humility, and respect as we do the living? The paper proposes integrating archival theory with social science reflexivity to ensure context-specific and just research practices. This requires researchers to navigate the ethical challenges of consent, institutional inaccessibility in the Arab region, and their own roles as de-facto archivists.
Ali Kassem critically interrogates Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) as mechanisms of coloniality and epistemic injustice, arguing that they often reduce ethics to a perfunctory "move to innocence." The paper calls for a reconceptualization of ethical research that transcends eurocentric paradigms through a decolonial rethinking of institutionalized university structures.
From the American University of Beirut (AUB):
Infographic on Research Ethics in the Region
From Birzeit University:
Research Ethics Learning Portal
