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ELSA Webinar Series Research Ethics

The ELSA Working Group Ethics is proud to announce the upcoming online webinar series on research ethics.

Tackling various topics and questions ranging from “What is (research) ethics?” to “Should we care about the CARE principles?” the series aims to engage anyone interested in ethics: researchers, research data professionals and ethics committee members but also the general public.

The talks will be given in English, starting at 16:00 h with 30-40 min presentations followed by 20-30 minutes for discussion.

Current programme overview

    Date Topic Speaker
    5 February 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Introduction to Research Ethics Prof. Dr. Hella von Unger, LMU Munich
    4 March 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethical aspects of human-participant research data collection: The open-source “Ethiktool” software Prof. Dr. Alexandra Bendixen, TU Chemnitz
    25 March 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethics and data reuse – How researchers are considering data sharing in their research ethics proposals Maximilian Frank, M.Sc., LMU Munich
    29 April 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethics and social risk assessment for secondary use of sensitive data Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz, University Medical Center Göttingen & Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff, Osnabrück University
    10 June 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h CARE principles Dr. Josef Jeschke, University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt Halle
    1 July 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Dark Data – when your data is lost and you don’t even know Dr.-Ing. Björn Schembera, University of Stuttgart

     

    Details

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    5 February 2026: Introduction to Research Ethics

    Prof. Dr. Hella von Unger, LMU Munich

    16:00 – 17:00 h

    This introduction to research ethics focuses on social science research ethics and situates it within the broader field of scientific integrity and its close entanglement with data protection and privacy concerns. It explores how research ethics and data ethics intersect, overlap, and sometimes diverge. Drawing on examples from ethics consultation and review practice, the presentation illustrates key challenges in translating research ethics principles into everyday social science research practice.

    To the slides: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18496265 

    4 March 2026: Ethical aspects of human-participant research data collection: The open-source “Ethiktool” software

      Prof. Dr. Alexandra Bendixen, TU Chemnitz

      16:00 – 17:00 h

      Collecting, using and re-using data from human participants requires their informed consent, as well as the obedience of further principles of research ethics. In many institutions, studies involving human participants must be reviewed by an ethics committee. Based on our long-standing ethics committee work, we have developed the open-source Ethiktool software that allows researchers to generate an ethics application with all information and consent forms for their participants, including an EU-GDPR-compliant data privacy statement. In my talk, I will demonstrate how the software supports both researchers and ethics committees and how it fosters synergies between research ethics and research data management.

      25 March 2026: Ethics and data reuse - How researchers are considering data sharing in their research ethics proposals

        Maximilian Frank, M.Sc., LMU Munich

        16:00 – 17:00 h

        As part of its efforts to promote the provision and sharing of research data in psychology, the DGPs (German Psychological Society) has developed an access-class concept for research data. For several years, this concept has also been used in ethics proposals submitted to the DGPs’ Central Ethics Committee. During the application process, researchers are required to provide information on data availability and reuse. This presentation outlines the experiences gained with this concept to date, describes its impact on researchers’ data-sharing behaviour, and highlights common mistakes when completing the relevant form. Finally, we discuss the applicability and usefulness of this approach for other disciplines.

        1 July 2026: Dark Data - when your data is lost and you don't even know

          Dr.-Ing. Björn Schembera, University of Stuttgart

          16:00 – 17:00 h

          Dark data refers to all data that is, among other features, undocumented, unavailable, hidden, unstructured, biased or erroneous. Leading analysts estimate that up to 80% of all data worldwide can be considered dark. Dark data can create economic, environmental, epistemic, ethical and legal challenges for data management and the reproducibility of research data. The presentation will introduce the characteristics and implications of dark data in science with a focus on ethics.

          Link to Zoom video conference (no registration required)

          We are open for suggestions on how the webinar series may continue beyond these dates.

          Feel free to contact us:

          • Vasilka Paunova
            vasilka.paunova(at)uni-mannheim.de (Speaker NFDI-ELSA)
          • Thomas Richter
            thomas.richter(at)hs-fulda.de (coordinator WG Ethics)