Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract Ethical dishonesty in social research, though to a slight degree, can undermine the foundations of social science and weaken its investigative, critical and truth-finding role. To analyze the possible ethical dishonesties and understand the normative space of research in Iranian social science, the present study employs documentary method for collecting and analyzing the published statements of researchers in this field. The findings of the present research show that norm-violation in research ethics in Iranian social science has individual and structural dimensions. In the individual dimension, a lack of commitment to the ethics research at personal and professional levels (in relation to the form and content of research, research organization, and the violation of scientific and professional norms and rules of conducting research) is of importance. In the structural dimension, abuse of institutional and organizational ethics and professional rules and commitments in relation to the research and researcher (selecting subject, doing assignment, refereeing, confirming, and reporting) is of significance. According to the findings, ethical dishonesty in the space of research in Iranian social science is the result of the interaction between of agents (researcher) and institutional construct (including rules and norms and resources) which facilitate norm violation. The result is that dishonesty in the research ethics follows a duality of structure in the space of Iranian science and is affected by the structural characteristics of the institution of science in Iran in the period under study.