scholarly journals Evaluating the prospects for university-based ethical governance in artificial intelligence and data-driven innovation

2021 ◽  
pp. 174701612110227
Author(s):  
Christine Hine
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
The University ◽  
Ethical Governance

There has been considerable debate around the ethical issues raised by data-driven technologies such as artificial intelligence. Ethical principles for the field have focused on the need to ensure that such technologies are used for good rather than harm, that they enshrine principles of social justice and fairness, that they protect privacy, respect human autonomy and are open to scrutiny. While development of such principles is well advanced, there is as yet little consensus on the mechanisms appropriate for ethical governance in this field. This paper examines the prospects for the university ethics committee to undertake effective review of research conducted on data-driven technologies in the university context. Challenges identified include: the relatively narrow focus of university-based ethical review on the human subjects research process and lack of capacity to anticipate downstream impacts; the difficulties of accommodating the complex interplay of academic and commercial interests in the field; and the need to ensure appropriate expertise from both specialists and lay voices. Overall, the challenges identified sharpen appreciation of the need to encourage a joined-up and effective system of ethical governance that fosters an ethical culture rather than replacing ethical reflection with bureaucracy.

scholarly journals Hazy Boundaries: Virtual Communities and Research Ethics

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 86-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Kantanen ◽  
Jyri Manninen
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Institutional Review Boards ◽  
Online Forums

This paper examines ethical issues specific to research into virtual communities. Drawing on an empirical case with online forums of education experts, we identify the following key issues: publicity versus privacy of the community; the definition of human subjects research; participant recruitment; informed consent; and ethical questions associated with observing virtual communities, and with reporting and disseminating research results. We maintain that different research cultures in different countries can present challenges when studying global forums. Acknowledging the ephemeral characteristics of Internet contexts, this paper argues that ethical considerations should be more case-based, instead of relying on one model for all solutions. We suggest that local ethics committees or institutional review boards could, with their expert knowledge of ethics, provide valuable support for researchers operating in the complex and dynamic terrain of Internet research, as well as in fields and research settings where an ethical review is not a standard part of the research process.

University Research Ethics Committees — A Summary of Research into Their Role, Remit and Conduct

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthea Tinker ◽  
Vera Coomber
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
National Study ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Human Volunteers ◽  
Research On Human Subjects ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Councils

As society becomes more aware of the rights of individuals, ethical issues become of increasing importance. Many research funders, including the research councils, increasingly emphasise research governance and ethical review in their consideration of submitted proposals. Little is known, however, about what universities do over ethical scrutiny and in order to find out the authors undertook a national study of all universities in the United Kingdom. The focus of the study was on human volunteers for research outside the remit of the National Health Service. The key questions being: to what extent do universities undertake ethical scrutiny of research and, if so, how? The broad conclusion is that when this survey was carried out in the autumn of 2003, the majority of universities were aware of the need for the ethical scrutiny of research on human subjects although in many of those universities the scrutiny system was being developed at the time of completion of the questionnaire. In some cases practice appeared to lag behind awareness and whilst there were some very good examples there were also some which were below an ‘acceptable’ standard. Recommendations are made concerning structures, coverage and membership for systems of ethical scrutiny within the university sector.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Ai Ethics ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Control Complex

This book explores the intertwining domains of artificial intelligence (AI) and ethics—two highly divergent fields which at first seem to have nothing to do with one another. AI is a collection of computational methods for studying human knowledge, learning, and behavior, including by building agents able to know, learn, and behave. Ethics is a body of human knowledge—far from completely understood—that helps agents (humans today, but perhaps eventually robots and other AIs) decide how they and others should behave. Despite these differences, however, the rapid development in AI technology today has led to a growing number of ethical issues in a multitude of fields, ranging from disciplines as far-reaching as international human rights law to issues as intimate as personal identity and sexuality. In fact, the number and variety of topics in this volume illustrate the width, diversity of content, and at times exasperating vagueness of the boundaries of “AI Ethics” as a domain of inquiry. Within this discourse, the book points to the capacity of sociotechnical systems that utilize data-driven algorithms to classify, to make decisions, and to control complex systems. Given the wide-reaching and often intimate impact these AI systems have on daily human lives, this volume attempts to address the increasingly complicated relations between humanity and artificial intelligence. It considers not only how humanity must conduct themselves toward AI but also how AI must behave toward humanity.

scholarly journals Ethics in Research

Management ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Wray-Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Business School ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Institutional Review

When compared to a number of other areas of the social sciences—sociology and anthropology being perhaps the best examples—discussions and debates around research ethics in the field of management are quite limited, both in number and scope. This is likely the consequence of a number of interrelated factors. It may speak to issues of the constitution of management faculty, the frequent separation of the business school from other parts of the university, or the historic construction of what is considered to be the role of the business school and management research in society. For whatever other reasons it has occurred, one of the factors must be the relatively homogenous nature of the field of management and organization studies—a field dominated by positivist research and a broadly functionalist, managerial orientation. In any field of inquiry largely constituted by conventional epistemological and ontological approaches, assumptions about “normal science” emerge and the impetus to question and debate, or indeed to defend, the ethics of normalized research practices is diminished. For many, the field of research ethics in management remains a formal process of compliance, requiring little discussion or reflection; it is a process of following a predefined code and satisfying the ethical review committee or institutional review board of one’s institution. Understood thus, ethics in management research is seen as something akin to a hurdle to be overcome by requisite form filling at the start of a research project. This is a limited—and limiting—understanding of ethical issues in management research. As the contributions cited in this bibliography attest, issues of ethics span the entire research process—from conception, through execution, to publication, and beyond. Assumptions regarding the purpose and value of research constitute an ethical warrant, legitimizing the very conduct of research in the first place. Additionally, the constitution of the management academy itself and its process of publication, citation, and review raises a number of ethical issues and concerns. Finally, management scholarship that draws on explicitly critical theoretical traditions and nonpositivist or antipositivist research approaches has heightened the questioning of conventional research practices and assumptions—generating critiques and some defenses of research ethics in management. This article maps out a significant proportion of the work and resources in the management academy that engage with such issues and debates.

scholarly journals Ethics in clinical research

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 012-018
Author(s):  
Nagla Hussein Mohamed Khalid
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Clinical Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Boards Of Trustees ◽  
Independent Research ◽  
Academic Medical ◽  
Research On Human Subjects ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
The University

Ethics in medical education research is associated with any research concerning human participants and including anthropological tissue conducted by supervising and scholars of the University. It is associated with the accountability of the researcher, to be honest, and privacy and confidentially and autonomy and respectfully to all participants who affected by their research studies. Objectives of the review: The motivation behind this report is to look at the ethical issues raised when investigating including human members. In addition, to demonstrate the important ethical consideration with academic medical research. Conclusion: Ethics of restorative research on human subjects should be clinically supported and deductively stable. Educated consent is a compulsory segment of any clinical research. Investigators are committed to configuration look into protocols that build up guidelines of logical respectability, safeguard ethical and authoritative issues of the human subjects, and follow the conventions for forthcoming survey by independent research morals boards of trustees.

Nursing adherence to ethical codes in pediatric oncology wards

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 924-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raziyeh Beykmirza ◽  
Lida Nikfarid ◽  
Foroozan Atashzadeh-Shoorideh ◽  
Maliheh Nasiri
Keyword(s):  
Pediatric Oncology ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Ethical Codes ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Optimal Average ◽  
The University

Background: The nature of children’s cancer comes with lots of ethical issues. Nurses are encouraged to adhere to ethical codes in their practice. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the perspectives of nurses and mothers of children with cancer regarding the adherence of nurses to ethical codes. Research design: In this descriptive-comparative study, a researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess the amount of adherence to Iranian nurses’ code of ethics in perspectives of pediatric oncology nurses and mothers. As a convention, the total scores were categorized as optimal, average, and low adherence. Participants and context: A total of 200 mothers and 60 nurses in pediatric oncology wards of five major hospitals in Tehran, Iran, participated in 2016. Ethical considerations: Organizational approval by the university and informed consent were ensured before conducting the research. The principles of voluntariness, confidentiality, and anonymity were respected during the research process. Findings: Results showed the mean score of the adherence to ethical codes by nurses, as per the nurses is 86.71 (12.57) and as per the mothers is 78.67 (16.09). The highest frequency for “Low adherence” and “Optimal adherence” to code of ethics by nurses were “Respect for individual autonomy and decision-making” (mothers, 72% and nurses, 70%) and “Commitment to confidentiality” (mothers, 64% and nurses, 74%), respectively. This revealed a significant difference between the responses of the nurses and the mothers (p = 0.001). Discussion: The results support the other studies in Iran about the difference between the perspectives of patients and nurses about adherence of nurses to ethical codes. Conclusion: Integration of family-centered and conventional care in addition to more attention to the education of professional ethical principles could be helpful to improve the ethical performance of nurses in oncology pediatric wards.

scholarly journals (A119) Ethical Issues in the Review and Conduct of Research during Active Conflicts: Reflections from Darfur, West Sudan

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s33-s34
Author(s):  
G.M.A. Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions ◽  
International Attention

A crisis has been evolving in the region of Darfur following an armed conflict between rebel groups and the assumingly government-supported militia in 2003. It has attracted international attention and intervention where 13 UN agencies and around 100 national and international non-governmental organizations have been serving the affected populations. Research as methodological means of data collection is crucial to timely assessment of the affected populations' needs before humanitarian interventions, raising fund to fulfil these needs, and to assess the effects of the humanitarian aids that have been delivered. However, the factors of (1) insecurity; (2) limited resources; (3) vulnerability of the population; and (4) the potential cultural and moral differences among researchers and the surveyed populations make the research process methodologically and ethically challenging. The aim of this paper is to present the effects of these factors on the ethical review and implementation of research, with emphasis on the issues of benefit-risk analysis, conflict of interests, and informed consent. A practical framework for the ethical review that responds to the need of timely provision of information as well as promoting the adherence to the international ethical principles also will be provided.

Tuberculosis surveillance and its discontents: the ethical paradox

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
R. Bayer ◽  
A. L. Fairchild ◽  
M. Zignol ◽  
K. G. Castro
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Health Organization

In June 2017, the World Health Organization issued the Guidelines on Ethical Issues in Public Health Surveillance. Using the frame of public health ethics, the guidance declared that countries have an affirmative duty to undertake surveillance and that the global community had an obligation to support those countries whose resources limited their capacity. The centrality of TB surveillance has long been recognized as a matter of public health practice and ethics. Nevertheless, contemporary global realities make clear that TB surveillance falls far short of the goal of uniform notification. It is this reality that necessitated the paradoxical turn to research studies that require informed consent and human subjects' ethical review, the very burdens that mandated notification were designed to overcome.

Philosophical evaluation of the conceptualisation of trust in the NHS’ Code of Conduct for artificial intelligence-driven technology

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106905
Author(s):  
Soogeun Samuel Lee
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Ethical Governance

The UK Government’s Code of Conduct for data-driven health and care technologies, specifically artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies, comprises 10 principles that outline a gold-standard of ethical conduct for AI developers and implementers within the National Health Service. Considering the importance of trust in medicine, in this essay I aim to evaluate the conceptualisation of trust within this piece of ethical governance. I examine the Code of Conduct, specifically Principle 7, and extract two positions: a principle of rationally justified trust that posits trust should be made on sound epistemological bases and a principle of value-based trust that views trust in an all-things-considered manner. I argue rationally justified trust is largely infeasible in trusting AI due to AI’s complexity and inexplicability. Contrarily, I show how value-based trust is more feasible as it is intuitively used by individuals. Furthermore, it better complies with Principle 1. I therefore conclude this essay by suggesting the Code of Conduct to hold the principle of value-based trust more explicitly.

scholarly journals Researchers’ Perspectives on Informed Consent and Ethical Review of Biobank Research in South Africa: A Cross-Sectional Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-317
Author(s):  
Erisa Mwaka ◽  
Lyn Horn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Biobank Research ◽  
Ethical Review Process ◽  
The University

There is limited literature on the opinions and perspectives of researchers on the ethical issues in biobank research in South Africa. This study aimed to explore researchers’ perspectives on informed consent and ethical review of biobank research in South Africa. An online survey was conducted among researchers and scientists at Stellenbosch University and the University of Kwazulu-Natal. The majority of researchers opined that broad consent is appropriate for biobank research. However, there was no consensus on the necessity for re-consent. Researchers were also in agreement that issues concerning informed consent and future use of samples require thorough discussions during the ethical review process. Overall, the attitude of researchers on informed consent and ethical review of biobank research was positive and ethically informed.

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