If a particular piece of research is done in an unethical way or has a hidden agenda to it then the ramifications of this could be very widespread. Research must be designed and carried out so that it is as accurate as possible. Many times there are important things in people's lives that hinder on how a particular research study turns out. Another big implication is that particularly with educational research, there is usually a major university or institution that is sponsoring the research. If research is done poorly or with any major flaws then this ends up reflecting upon whoever sponsored it. This is one thing that these institutions and universities do not want to happen as it ends up doing damage to their reputations. A school with a bad reputation will have a hard time getting students to attend. They also often find it hard to get funding from outside sources for research if they have a bad reputation for the quality of their research.

A big implication with research that is conducted with a hidden agenda usually ends up being very narrow in scope and often does not result in anything that is of any use to a lot of people. This kind of research does not benefit a lot of people and many times ends up doing more damage than it does good in the end. It is very hard to build upon quality research if there was no quality research done in the first place. This is why the field of research and especially that of educational research is coming under a lot of scrutiny and thus being subjected to many new rules and regulations.

If not, what alternative views are relevant to this issue?

Some people feel that research...

They do not feel that there is any need for rules and regulations and that they should be able to do whatever they want and however they want to do it. They feel that no matter what their reasoning is for conducting the research that something good always comes from it, although some things are more apparent than others. Some think that if they can somehow get people to participate in research studies that it shouldn't matter if the people know what they are getting themselves into or not. That because it is in the name of research that anything should go.
Another view is that if there is something to be researched and proved then there should not be any rules on how they get to the end proof. Researchers are unethical when they knowingly do sloppy work. This sloppy work can take the form of careless reporting or computation, deliberate bias in favor of a particular point-of-view, or poor supervision of field workers or of the data collection process.

A second category of unethical practice arises when researchers manipulate their data in order to reach a self-interested outcome. This happens when there is suppression unfavorable data, sampling which is likely to produce a favorable result, or the privileged misuse of information. A third category is fraud. This category includes plagiarism of text, the failure to acknowledge the source of an idea or the contribution of others, and the fabrication of data or events. These are all examples of how poor research practices can lead to very biased research. In the end this type of research does not really do anyone any good. The participants suffer, the sponsors of the research suffer and the general research community along with the general public all end up suffering in the end.