Our Principles

Switching Barriers is a social research consultancy practice. We are keen to become a successful and trusted research partner for the business community. Our primary intent is to use consumer research to help our clients solve commercial problems. 

Today, social researchers work across multiple disciplines, such as Psychology, Healthcare, and Behavioral Economics. More recent digital innovations add complexity, particularly relating to ensuring privacy and information security for both subjects and clients.

This complex landscape confronts researchers with differing ethical approaches and conventions that influence research structure and methods.

We comply with the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure confidentiality and security of all healthcare-related information. We are also guided by both the UK’s Social Research Association Guidelines and the American Sociological Association Code of Ethics, which help us to make appropriate research decisions. In many respects, all researchers are treading new ground, particularly within digital research domains. Our primary approach to managing these inherent privacy risks is to embed ethical reviews within our project execution processes.

• We shape our research on the principles that support research guidelines and regulations;
• Where significant implicit or explicit choices (associated with principles) must be made, we seek guidance from experts in the field;
• SWBR protects subjects from undue harm that may arise due to their participation in research projects. The subjects’ participation is voluntary;
• SWBR balances its relationship with its clients to ensure the highest standards of research ethics are maintained at all times;
• Privileged information supplied by clients and subjects, or obtained during research, is always kept confidential;
• SWBR will not collect, store, or use Personal Identifiable Information;
• SWBR maintains thoughtful, dedicated, professional integrity at all times.