The ethics of excellence in tourism research: A reflexive analysis and implications for early career researchers

Set against the framework of today's competitive research environment, this article focuses on a less discussed category of ethics within tourism: that of the researcher as a professional. "Data" are presented as reflexive considerations on the ethical challenges and dilemmas an early career researcher faced during her transition from the early to mid-career phase. Personal experiences are compared to a multidisciplinary literature on ethics, education, knowledge production, and distribution. This article concludes that it is possible for early career researchers in the current tourism academic climate to remain ethical and successful at the same time-if they engage constantly and reflexively with the ethical questions that surround their own identity, power, and responsibility as academics. The article also asks that the tourism research community and institutional structures place more emphasis on the discussion of ethics and codes of conduct. © 2018 Cognizant, LLC.