Whilst researching the theoretical framework of my thesis, I discovered a paper that already uses extremely similar methods to the ones that I was planning on using for one of my hypothesis, and that also uses almost the same sample. The research was made in 2008, is it thus ethical to go on with my research knowing that the data from 2008 to 2017 is now available and could make a difference?
Do I have to notify the author about this?
You are determining, in effect, whether the results are replicable with a larger or different data base. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you make it clear that this is what you are doing. The respectable and important goals of replication studies are confirmation and increased support for generalization.
Good that you found out just on time. Many times, people don't find out until they are done with their own project, then they become victims of unintended plagiarism. That said, I think you can still go ahead and apply the framework, just that it has to reflect that someone had earlier used same. Your will then be adopting the earlier one, since it turns out that someone had earlier used it. However, you may not want to use it just exactly as it. So you have to bring to bear the peculiarity of your own framework, and this is what differentiate yours from the earlier one. This is my candid advise for you.
You are determining, in effect, whether the results are replicable with a larger or different data base. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you make it clear that this is what you are doing. The respectable and important goals of replication studies are confirmation and increased support for generalization.
Quality is by original work and my belief equivalent credit to researchers working in vicinity always
It'll be wiser to acknowledge the 8 author, and refurbish the data with new references
His expertise and further refinement can be milked, with his concurrence
Luck
In my opinion; to recreate someone else's research with more recent data will be ethical with the conditions in below;
- citation of the first article in the references and
- to keep the citations limited while displaying the first article.
I think it will be scientific courtesy to notify the first author about this.
Notably, replicatory research is a legitimate approach to conducting research. It is quite ethical and not an act of plagiarism when one repeats a particular research employing new type of data.
The first thing is to write to the author or authors of the work that presents similarity and comment on what you develop with your thesis. The second is to quote them, I have to indicate that your approach can reinforce what was raised by the first study
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