(a) The behavior analyst engaged in study and research is guided by the conventions of the science 

of behavior including the emphasis on the analysis of individual behavior and strives to model 

appropriate applications in professional life.

(d) Behavior analysts do not participate in activities in which it appears likely that their skills or data 

will be misused by others, unless corrective mechanisms, e.g., peer or external professional or 

independent review, are available.

(a) Behavior analysts do not disclose in their writings, lectures, or other public media, confidential, 

personally identifiable information concerning their individual or organizational clients, students, 

research participants, or other recipients of their services that they obtained during the course of their work, unless the person or organization has consented in writing or unless there is other 

ethical or legal authorization for doing so.

(b) Ordinarily, in such scientific and professional presentations, behavior analysts disguise 

confidential information concerning such persons or organizations so that they are not 

individually identifiable to others and so that discussions do not cause harm to identifiable 

participants.

Behavior analysts plan and conduct research in a manner consistent with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as professional standards governing the conduct of research, and particularly those standards governing research with human participants and animal subjects. Behavior analysts also comply with other applicable laws and regulations relating to mandated reporting requirements.

(a) Using language that is reasonably understandable to participants, behavior analysts inform participants of the nature of the research; they inform participants that they are free to participate or to decline to participate or to withdraw from the research; they explain the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing; they inform participants of significant factors that may be expected to influence their willingness to participate (such as risks, discomfort, adverse effects, or limitations on confidentiality, except as provided in Standard 10.05 below); and they explain other aspects about which the prospective participants inquire.

(b) For persons who are legally incapable of giving informed consent, behavior analysts nevertheless (1) provide an appropriate explanation, (2) discontinue research if the person gives clear signs of unwillingness to continue participation, and (3) obtain appropriate permission from a legally 

authorized person, if such substitute consent is permitted by law.

(a) Behavior analysts do not conduct a study involving deception unless they have determined that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the study’s prospective scientific, educational, or applied value and that equally effective alternative procedures that do not use deception are not feasible.

(b) Behavior analysts never deceive research participants about significant aspects that would affect their willingness to participate, such as physical risks, discomfort, or unpleasant emotional experiences.

(c) Any other deception that is an integral feature of the design and conduct of an experiment must be explained to participants as early as is feasible, preferably at the conclusion of their participation, but no later than at the conclusion of the research.

Behavior analysts inform research participants of their anticipated sharing or further use of personally identifiable research data and of the possibility of unanticipated future uses.

In conducting research, behavior analysts interfere with the participants or environment from which data are collected only in a manner that is warranted by an appropriate research design and that is consistent with behavior analysts’ roles as scientific investigators

If the behavior analyst recruits participants from classes and the participants are provided additional 

credit for participating in the research, nonparticipating students must be provided alternative 

activities that generate comparable credit.

The behavior analyst who pays participants for research involvement or uses money as a reinforcer 

must obtain Institutional Review Board or Human Rights Committee approval of this practice and 

conform to any special requirements that may be established in the process of approval.

The behavior analyst who withholds part of the money earned by the participant until the participant 

has completed their research involvement must inform the participant of this condition prior to 

beginning the experiment.

The behavior analyst who serves on grant review panels avoids conducting any research described 

in grant proposals that the behavior analyst reviewed, except as replications fully crediting the prior 

researchers

Behavior analysts who conduct research involving animals treat them humanely and are in 

compliance with applicable animal welfare laws in their country.

Behavior analysts do not fabricate data or falsify results in their publications. If behavior analysts 

discover significant errors in their published data, they take reasonable steps to correct such errors in 

a correction, retraction, erratum, or other appropriate publication means.

Behavior analysts do not present portions or elements of another’s work or data as their own, even if 

the other work or data source is cited occasionally, nor do they omit findings that might alter others’ 

interpretations of their work or behavior analysis in general.

Principal authorship and other publication credits accurately reflect the relative scientific or 

professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their relative status. Mere 

possession of an institutional position, such as Department Chair, does not justify authorship credit. 

Minor contributions to the research or to the writing for publications are appropriately acknowledged, 

such as in footnotes or in an introductory statement. Further, these Guidelines recognize and support 

the ethical requirements for authorship and publication practices contained in the ethical code of the American Psychological Association.

Behavior analysts do not publish, as original data, data that have been previously published. This does 

not preclude republishing data when they are accompanied by proper acknowledgment.

After research results are published, behavior analysts do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data 

preclude their release.

(b) Behavior analysts take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients, research participants, 

students, and others with whom they work, and to minimize harm where it is foreseeable and 

unavoidable. Harm is defined here as negative effects or side effects of behavior analysis that 

outweigh positive effects in the particular instance, and that are behavioral or physical and directly 

observable.

(c) Because behavior analysts’ scientific and professional judgments and actions affect the lives of 

others, they are alert to and guard against personal, financial, social, organizational, or political 

factors that might lead to misuse of their influence.

(e) Behavior analysts do not exaggerate claims for effectiveness of particular procedures or of behavior 

analysis in general.

B-03: Independent variables effects on dependent 

variables