This chapter addresses several ethical considerations in conducting research while focusing on strategies to minimize risks to participants. While reading this chapter, one needs to consider the following questions: What should researchers do to ensure they are engaging in ethically sound research? How should risks and benefits be weighed when conducting research? How do ethical standards and procedures used in research pertain to human service practitioners? The chapter identifies the basic ethical issues in social research and suggests some strategies for making sure that ethical considerations are attended to in the conduct and use of research. Seven basic ethical issues arise in social science research: informed consent, deception, privacy (including confidentiality and anonymity), physical or mental distress, problems in sponsored research, scientific misconduct or fraud, and scientific advocacy. The unique situation confronting the human service researcher raises two additional considerations: protecting vulnerable clients and withholding treatment for research purposes.