Since research in the field of social and health care often deals with so-called vulnerable groups and a wide range of ethical and moral questions arise when researching practice and co-researching in practice, the department has discussed ethics and research in its committees on various occasions. Here, it was agreed that, initially, full-time faculty who supervise students in research projects would be responsible for the ethical issues of applied research. They can be guided, for example, by the "Code of Ethics of the German Sociological Association (DGS) and the Professional Association of German Sociologists (BDS)" or by the "Draft Code of Ethics for Research in Nursing Science " of the German Nursing Science Association.

Should specific research ethics issues or fundamental problems arise in certain areas of research at the department or in ongoing research projects, the department may convene an ad hoc ethics committee. In the ethics committee, for example, questions of research treatment of vulnerable groups and data protection can be discussed, examined and subjected to a research ethics review.

Questions about the Ethics Committee can be addressed to the Research Officer.