The Ethics of Compensation in Political Science Research

Political scientists confront serious ethical dilemmas when deciding whether and how to compensate research participants, without clear disciplinary guidelines or shared norms. Our paper presents a systematic framework for developing and refining compensation plans and contributes to the political methodology and research ethics literature. The analysis draws on published methodological and empirical research across subfields, and the authors’ original data collection in a range of political regimes across urban and rural contexts in the Global North and Global South. We argue that researchers must confront seven types of compensation decisions, and we detail specific criteria that should guide their choices. We highlight the wide range of monetary and non-monetary compensation options available to researchers and offer strategies to navigate complex ethical dilemmas. Our findings demonstrate the value of contextual knowledge and relationships when creating and updating compensation plans and offer researchers a rigorous framework to guide difficult ethical compensation choices.