Research Principles

EGAP Research Principles | June 2011

The members of the Experiments in Governance and Politics network (EGAP) seek to support sound and ethical

practice in the conduct of experimental research on governance and politics and in the use of such research for policy

and decision-making in the public and private sectors.

We pledge ourselves to maintaining high standards of scientific competence and integrity in conducting, analyzing,

and reporting our work; in our relations with research participants; with our partners; with those who eventually use

the research for decision-making purposes; and with the general public. To do so we subscribe to the following

principles.

Principles

1 Human Subjects Protection

We are committed to the protection of human subjects implicated in our research. In cases in which

researchers are engaged alongside practitioners an agreement should state which party, if either, has

primary responsibility for the intervention. Researchers should disclose the role that they play in the

design of interventions implemented by practitioners or third parties.

2 Transparency

To maintain transparency and limit bias in reporting, researchers should seek to register research

designs, hypotheses and tests in advance of data collection and analysis. In presentation of findings,

researchers should distinguish between analyses that were planned ex ante and those that were

conceptualized ex post.

3 Rights to Review and Publish Findings

In collaborations between researchers and practitioners it should be agreed in advance, and not

contingent upon findings, what findings and data can be used for publication. In cases in which such

agreement is not made in advance, and unconditional on findings, this fact should be noted in

publications.

4 Publication of Data

In collaborations between researchers and practitioners, researchers and practitioners should agree

in advance that data used for analysis will be made publicly available (subject to masking of

identifiable information) for replication purposes within a specified time period after data collection.

5 Remuneration

Researchers should normally not receive remuneration from project implementers whose projects

they are studying. In cases in which researchers receive remuneration from such agencies, this fact

EGAP Research Principles | June 2011