At its October 1987 meeting, the Executive Board of the Society
approved a final draft of a Statement of Ethics for AFS. Though
the Statement printed below has gained the approval of the Board,
this should not be considered the final word on the subject. The
Board expects and in fact urges members to explore the abstract
and practical implications of this statement, and most important,
to communicate their descriptions on and opinions on matters of
ethical concern in the Newsletter and the Journal of
American Folklore.
The Board would like to extend its thanks to all members of
the State of the Profession Committee and the membership at large,
whose thought, effort, comments and criticism have gone into the
making of this Statement. Particular thanks are due to Frank de
Caro, Lynwood Montell and William Nicolaisen, who were active
in early discussions of the Statement; to Rayna Green, who prepared
early drafts for Committee and Board discussion; to Jack Santino,
who drafted the version of the Statement distributed to the membership
for comment in AFSNL 15:5; and to Yvonne Milspaw, who prepared
a text based on Santino's draft for Board consideration in October
1987.
STATEMENT ON ETHICS: PRINCIPLES OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Preamble
This statement of principles is intended to clarify the professional
responsibilities of professional folklorists. Folklorists, more
than most other professionals, work with peoples from many different
communities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Their professional
situation is therefore particularly varied and complex. They
are involved in different ways with their discipline, their
colleagues, their students, their sponsors, their own and host
governments, the particular individuals and groups with whom
they conduct their fieldwork, and other populations and interest
groups in the nations where they work. Because folklorists study
issues and processes that affect general human welfare, they
are faced with unusual complexities and ethical dilemmas. It
is a major responsibility of folklorists to anticipate these
and to plan to resolve them in such a way as to do least damage
to those with whom they work and to their scholarly community.
1. Relations with those studied:
In research, folklorists' primary responsibility is to those
they study. When there is a conflict of interest, these individuals
must come first. Folklorists must do everything in their power
to protect the physical, social, and psychological welfare of
their informants and to honor the dignity and privacy of those
studied.
a. Where research involves the acquisition of materials
and information transferred on the assumption of trust between
persons, the rights, interests, and sensitivities of those studied
must be safeguarded.
b. The aims of the investigation should be communicated
as is possible to the informant.
c. Informants have the right to remain anonymous. The right
should be respected both where it has been promised explicitly
and, as much as possible, where no clear understanding to
the contrary has been reached. These strictures apply to the
collection of data by means of cameras, tape recorders, and
other data-collecting devises, as well as to data collected
in interviews.
d. There shall be no exploitation of individual informants
for personal gain. Fair return should be given them for all
services.
e. There is an obligation to reflect on the foreseeable
repercussions of research and publication on the general population
being studied.
f. The anticipated consequences of the research should be
communicated as fully as possible to the individuals and groups
likely to be affected.
2. Responsibility to the public:
Folklorists are responsible to all presumed consumers of their
professional efforts. To them they owe a commitment to candor
and truth in the dissemination of their research results and
in statements of their opinions as students of human behavior.
3. Responsibility to the discipline:
Folklorists bear responsibility for the good reputation of
the discipline and its practitioners.
4. Responsibility to students:
In relations with students, folklorists should be candid,
fair, nonexploitative, and committed to the students' welfare
and progress. Folklorists as teachers have responsibility of
instruction in the professional ethics of academe in general
and of folklore in particular in addition to their duties of
instruction in the field, career counseling, academic supervision,
evaluation, compensation, and placement.
a. Folklorists must alert students to the ethical
problems of research and discourage them from participating
in projects that employ questionable ethical standards.
b. Folklorists should acknowledge in print the student assistance
used in their own publications; give appropriate credit (including
coauthorship) when student research is used in publication;
encourage and assist students in publication of worthy student
papers; and compensate students justly for the use of their
time, energy, and intelligence in research and writing.
5. Responsibilities to sponsors, including
one's own and host governments:
In relations with sponsors of research, folklorists should
be honest about their qualifications, capabilities, and aims.
Thus, they face the obligation, prior to entering into any commitment
for research to reflect upon the purposes of their sponsors
in terms of those sponsors' past behavior and what the likely
uses of their research data will be. Folklorists should be especially
careful not to promise or imply acceptance either of conditions
contrary to their professional ethics or of competing commitments,
and they should demand assurance that they will not be required
to compromise their professional responsibilities and ethics
as a condition of the sponsors' permission to pursue research.
Epilogue:
Folklore research is a human undertaking for which the individual
bears ethical as well as scientific responsibility. This statement
provided guidelines to the accepted professional standards of
research and the presentation of that research. When folklorists
by their actions jeopardize peoples studied, professional colleagues,
students or others, or if they otherwise betray their professional
commitments, the American Folklore Society, through its State
of the Profession Committee, may legitimately inquire into the
propriety of those actions and take such measures as lie within
its legitimate powers.
