9.3 Research and Publication Ethics

ACA Section G is Research and Publication. Many Mississippi JP candidates will never run a randomized trial. That does not make G a skip chapter. Rule 7.1 requires Licensees to adhere to the current ACA Code except where Mississippi law, policy, or Board rules supersede it. Rule 8.1.K makes a violation of that adopted Code a disciplinary ground. A stem about a P-LPC's thesis, a clinic outcomes study, a case example in a workshop, or a journal submission is still a G item. This OpenExamPrep section is independent study material for the applicant Pass/Fail JP exam. It is not a Board, CCE, NBCC, or ACA publication.

The Section G introduction encourages counselors who conduct research to contribute to the profession's knowledge base and to promote a clearer understanding of conditions that lead to a healthy and more just society. Counselors support researchers by participating fully and willingly whenever possible. Counselors minimize bias and respect diversity in designing and implementing research. Aspiration is not a substitute for G.1–G.5 when a file later shows fabricated scores or a student listed as fourth author on the student's own thesis.

G.1 Research responsibilities

G.1.a Conducting Research: Counselors plan, design, conduct, and report research in a manner consistent with pertinent ethical principles, federal and state laws, host institutional regulations, and scientific standards governing research. A private-practice LPC who "just surveys clients" is not outside G.1.a because there is no university letterhead. Independent researchers are expressly covered in G.1.c: when counselors conduct independent research and do not have access to an institutional review board, they are bound to the same ethical principles and federal and state laws pertaining to review of their plan, design, conduct, and reporting of research. "No IRB at my clinic" is not a G.1.c exemption; it is a reminder to follow the same principles anyway.

G.1.b Confidentiality in Research: Counselors are responsible for understanding and adhering to state, federal, agency, or institutional policies or applicable guidelines regarding confidentiality in their research practices. Mississippi overlay: client communications still sit under Miss. Code § 73-30-17 privilege and ACA Section B. A research hat does not convert a therapy file into a public dataset.

G.1.d Deviation From Standard Practice: Counselors seek consultation and observe stringent safeguards to protect the rights of research participants when research indicates that a deviation from standard or acceptable practices may be necessary.

G.1.e Precautions to Avoid Injury: Counselors who conduct research are responsible for their participants' welfare throughout the research process and should take reasonable precautions to avoid causing emotional, physical, or social harm to participants.

G.1.f Principal Researcher Responsibility: The ultimate responsibility for ethical research practice lies with the principal researcher. All others involved in the research activities share ethical obligations and responsibility for their own actions. A P-LPC who collects data "because my LPC-S told me to" still owns the P-LPC's own actions. The LPC-S who designs the protocol still owns principal-researcher duties if that is the LPC-S's role.

G.2.i adds a practical continuity duty: as appropriate, researchers prepare and disseminate to an identified colleague or records custodian a plan for the transfer of research data in the case of their incapacitation, retirement, or death.

G.2 Rights of research participants

G.2.a Informed Consent in Research: Individuals have the right to decline requests to become research participants. In seeking consent, counselors use language that:

1. accurately explains the purpose and procedures to be followed;
2. identifies any procedures that are experimental or relatively untried;
3. describes any attendant discomforts, risks, and potential power differentials between researchers and participants;
4. describes any benefits or changes in individuals or organizations that might reasonably be expected;
5. discloses appropriate alternative procedures that would be advantageous for participants;
6. offers to answer any inquiries concerning the procedures;
7. describes any limitations on confidentiality;
8. describes the format and potential target audiences for the dissemination of research findings; and
9. instructs participants that they are free to withdraw their consent and discontinue participation in the project at any time, without penalty.

Those nine points are a closed JP list. A consent form that names benefits and skips withdrawal-without-penalty, or that hides experimental procedures, is not G.2.a compliance.

G.2.b Student/Supervisee Participation: Researchers who involve students or supervisees in research make clear to them that the decision regarding participation in research activities does not affect their academic standing or supervisory relationship. Students or supervisees who choose not to participate are provided with an appropriate alternative to fulfill their academic or clinical requirements. A Mississippi LPC-S who makes log signatures depend on filling out the LPC-S's dissertation survey has created a G.2.b coercion problem on top of F.1.a.

G.2.c Client Participation: Counselors conducting research involving clients make clear in the informed consent process that clients are free to choose whether to participate in research activities. Counselors take necessary precautions to protect clients from adverse consequences of declining or withdrawing from participation. Therapy does not become contingent on being a data point.

G.2.d Confidentiality of Information: Information obtained about research participants during the course of research is confidential. Procedures are implemented to protect confidentiality.

G.2.e Persons Not Capable of Giving Informed Consent: When a research participant is not capable of giving informed consent, counselors provide an appropriate explanation to, obtain agreement for participation from, and obtain the appropriate consent of a legally authorized person.

G.2.f: Counselors take reasonable measures to honor all commitments to research participants.

G.2.g Explanations After Data Collection: After data are collected, counselors provide participants with full clarification of the nature of the study to remove any misconceptions participants might have regarding the research. Where scientific or human values justify delaying or withholding information, counselors take reasonable measures to avoid causing harm.

G.2.h Informing Sponsors: Counselors inform sponsors, institutions, and publication channels regarding research procedures and outcomes. Counselors ensure that appropriate bodies and authorities are given pertinent information and acknowledgment.

G.3 Boundaries with research participants

G.3.a Extending Researcher–Participant Boundaries: Researchers consider the risks and benefits of extending current research relationships beyond conventional parameters. When a nonresearch interaction between the researcher and the research participant may be potentially beneficial, the researcher must document, prior to the interaction (when feasible), the rationale, the potential benefit, and anticipated consequences for the research participant. Such interactions should be initiated with appropriate consent. Where unintentional harm occurs, the researcher must show evidence of an attempt to remedy such harm.

G.3.b Relationships With Research Participants: Sexual or romantic counselor–research participant interactions or relationships with current research participants are prohibited. This prohibition applies to both in-person and electronic interactions or relationships. The pattern matches F.3.b (current supervisees) and A.5.a (current clients): current role plus electronic contact is still inside the bar.

G.3.c: Researchers do not condone or subject research participants to sexual harassment.

G.4 Reporting results honestly

G.4.a Accurate Results: Counselors plan, conduct, and report research accurately. Counselors do not engage in misleading or fraudulent research, distort data, misrepresent data, or deliberately bias their results. They describe the extent to which results are applicable for diverse populations. Rounding a fail rate into a pass rate for a workshop brochure is a G.4.a problem, not marketing creativity.

G.4.b Obligation to Report Unfavorable Results: Counselors report the results of any research of professional value. Results that reflect unfavorably on institutions, programs, services, prevailing opinions, or vested interests are not withheld. A clinic that buries an outcomes study because the numbers look bad is failing G.4.b.

G.4.c Reporting Errors: If counselors discover significant errors in their published research, they take reasonable steps to correct such errors in a correction erratum or through other appropriate publication means. Silence after discovering a coding error is not humility; it is a G.4.c miss.

G.4.d Identity of Participants: Counselors who supply data, aid in the research of another person, report research results, or make original data available take due care to disguise the identity of respective participants in the absence of specific authorization from the participants to do otherwise. In situations where participants self-identify their involvement in research studies, researchers take active steps to ensure that data are adapted/changed to protect the identity and welfare of all parties and that discussion of results does not cause harm to participants. A Mississippi workshop case that still identifies a Jackson family by facts everyone in town knows is a G.4.d (and G.5.a) problem even if the slide omits the surname.

G.4.e Replication Studies: Counselors are obligated to make available sufficient original research information to qualified professionals who may wish to replicate or extend the study. Hiding the method so nobody can check the claim contradicts G.4.e.

G.5 Publications, plagiarism, and student credit

G.5.a Use of Case Examples: The use of participants', clients', students', or supervisees' information for the purpose of case examples in a presentation or publication is permissible only when (a) those persons have reviewed the material and agreed to its presentation or publication or (b) the information has been sufficiently modified to obscure identity. That is the same two-door test as F.7.f in the classroom.

G.5.b Plagiarism: Counselors do not plagiarize; that is, they do not present another person's work as their own.

G.5.c Acknowledging Previous Work: In publications and presentations, counselors acknowledge and give recognition to previous work on the topic by others or self.

G.5.d Contributors: Counselors give credit through joint authorship, acknowledgment, footnote statements, or other appropriate means to those who have contributed significantly to research or concept development in accordance with such contributions. The principal contributor is listed first, and minor technical or professional contributions are acknowledged in notes or introductory statements.

G.5.e Agreement of Contributors: Counselors who conduct joint research with colleagues or students/supervisors establish agreements in advance regarding allocation of tasks, publication credit, and types of acknowledgment that will be received.

G.5.f Student Research: Manuscripts or professional presentations in any medium that are substantially based on a student's course papers, projects, dissertations, or theses are used only with the student's permission and list the student as lead author. An LPC-S who publishes the P-LPC's thesis chapter as first author, or who presents it at a conference without permission, fails G.5.f even if the LPC-S "helped a lot."

G.5.g Duplicate Submissions: Counselors submit manuscripts for consideration to only one journal at a time. Manuscripts that are published in whole or in substantial part in one journal or published work are not submitted for publication to another publisher without acknowledgment and permission from the original publisher.

G.5.h Professional Review: Counselors who review material submitted for publication, research, or other scholarly purposes respect the confidentiality and proprietary rights of those who submitted it. They make publication decisions based on valid and defensible standards, review article submissions in a timely manner and based on their scope and competency in research methodologies, and as reviewers make every effort to review only materials within their scope of competency and avoid personal biases.

JP scenario: the thesis, the buried outcomes, and the first-author swap

Morgan is a Mississippi P-LPC finishing a specialist project on clinic no-show rates. Morgan's LPC-S requires every supervisee to complete the project survey "or supervision hours will not be signed," uses Morgan's thesis tables in a conference talk without Morgan's permission, lists the LPC-S as lead author, and withholds the unfavorable no-show findings because they "would embarrass the agency." G.2.b is already broken: participation cannot affect the supervisory relationship, and non-participants need an appropriate alternative. G.5.f requires Morgan's permission and Morgan as lead author on work substantially based on the student's project. G.4.b forbids withholding unfavorable results of professional value. If the LPC-S also pastes another author's literature review without credit, G.5.b plagiarism is a separate charge. Rule 8.1.K still lets the Mississippi Board treat those Code breaches as disciplinary grounds even though Section G never mentions Jackson. Confirm the 2014 G letters in the open-book Code; do not invent a "research is off the JP" exception.