scholarly journals Correction to: Regulatory, scientific, and ethical issues arising from institutional activity in one of the 90 Italian Research Ethics Committees

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Benfatto ◽  
◽  
F. Drago ◽  

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Samuel ◽  
W. Ahmed ◽  
H. Kara ◽  
C. Jessop ◽  
S. Quinton ◽  
...  

This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-life environments. The lack of answers to such questions was noted, along with the difficulties posed for ethical governance structures in general and the work of research ethics committees in particular. Discussions of these issues enabled the creation of two recommendations. The first is for research ethics committees and journal editors to add the category of ‘data subject research’ to the existing categories of ‘text research’ and ‘human subject research’. This would reflect the fact that social media research does not fall into either of the existing categories and so needs a category of its own. The second is that ethical issues should be considered at all stages of social media research, up to and including aftercare. This acknowledges that social media research throws up a large number of ethical issues throughout the process which, under current arrangements for ethical research governance, risks remaining unaddressed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunbrith Peterson ◽  
Anders Wallin

The rapid advances in biomedical sciences have induced special moral and ethical attitudes, which ought to be taken into account. One of the most essential issues is the principles for participation in research of subjects with reduced decision-making capacity. We conducted a questionnaire survey among members of the research ethics committees in Sweden to find out their attitudes to a range of ethical issues related to research on subjects with Alzheimer's disease. One hundred thirty-six of those approached responded (66%), and 117 of the responses (56%) were considered substantially complete. There were 16 questions with fixed reply alternatives. Some central questions concerned the informed consent process. With a few exceptions, there were no significant differences in attitudes between the experts and laypersons, between persons of different ages, and between men and women. However, women and laypersons were in general keener to preserve the patient's integrity and the experts were more willing than the laypersons to allow participation of subjects with dementia in placebo-controlled trials.


Author(s):  
Michelle McCarron

Ethics in Qualitative Research (Miller, Birch Mauthner, & Jessop, 2012), now in its second edition, uses a feminist framework to present a variety of issues pertinent to qualitative researchers. Topics include traditional challenges for qualitative researchers (e.g., access to potential participants, informed consent, overlapping roles), as well as those that have garnered more attention in recent years, particularly with regard to uses and consequences of technological advances in research. The book is critical of committees whose function it is to review proposed research and grant research ethics approval (e.g., University Research Ethics Committees [URECs], Research Ethics Boards [REBs], and Institutional Review Boards [IRBs]). The authors of this book are situated within the United Kingdom. The editors take the position that ethics oversight by the researchers themselves is preferable and that such boards and committees are not well equipped to review qualitative research. A rebuttal to this position is presented within this review. Ethics in Qualitative Research provides a good overview of ethical issues that researchers face and is effective in merging theory with practice. It would be strengthened by avoiding the debate over URECs or by offering concrete suggestions for how URECs can improve their reviews of qualitative research.


Author(s):  
Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg

Abstract The year 1966 saw the birth of Sweden’s first formal Research Ethics Committee (rec) at the medical university Karolinska Institute (ki). In the following years other ethical committees were institutionalized, coordinated by a working group steered by the Swedish Medical Research Council (smrc). Research ethical issues of a principled nature were also discussed by the Ethics Delegation of the Swedish Society of Medicine (ssm). Between 1966 and 1975, around 500 research proposals were assessed by rec s in Sweden, and the medical community started to follow certain protocols when preparing applications for ethical review. This paper traces the origins and early development of the rec system in Sweden and offers an analysis of their practices, discussions, and assessments through the reading of meeting protocols and correspondence between central actors. The aim is to sketch out how and why the system of research ethics committees emerged, became institutionalized, and developed in Sweden from the 1960s to the early 1980s. This paper connects to the recent empirical turn in historical research on medical research ethics and regulations, by focusing on how the insiders, i.e., the medical community, reacted to new demands of ethical review. The analysis illustrates how the medical researchers interacted with transnational funders, the Patients Association, a broader public, governmental authorities, and parliamentary politics when developing the Swedish rec system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-198
Author(s):  
D Carrieri ◽  
L Jackson ◽  
C Bewshea ◽  
B Prainsack ◽  
J Mansfield ◽  
...  

Ethical guidance for genomic research is increasingly sought and perceived to be necessary. Although there are pressing ethical issues in genomic research – concerning for example the recruitment of patients/participants; the process of taking consent; data sharing; and returning results to patients/participants – there is still limited useful guidance available for researchers/clinicians or for the research ethics committees who review such projects.  This report outlines the ethical principles and guidance for genomic research co-produced with stakeholders during two workshops which took place in the UK between November 2016 and May 2017. The stakeholders involved in these workshops included: healthcare professionals, genomic research teams, academics, patients, biobank managers, and representatives from the Health Research Authority (HRA), NHS Research Ethics Committees, patient support groups, pharmaceutical industry, and health policy think tanks. The co-produced principles and guidance are specifically aimed at researchers/clinicians and members of NHS Research Ethics Committees, and are formulated with the intention to be clear and accessible, both in terms of content and language, to these groups.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Assiter

Following Alder Hey and the earlier and much more extreme practices at Nuremberg, legislation has been developed governing the practice of medical ethics and research involving human participants more generally. In the medical context, relevant legislation includes GMC guidance, which states that disclosure of identifiable patient information without consent, for research purposes, is not acceptable unless it is justified in the public interest. There is a presumption, in other words, in favour of the view that patient consent ought to be obtained before any piece of research is conducted. The Data Protection Act, furthermore, requires informed consent to be given before any use of identifiable personal data is made for any purpose. Moreover, ensuring that the informed consent of participants is gained is common practice on most research ethics committees. I argue, in this paper, that applying the principle of ‘informed consent’ too mechanistically in the research ethics context risks undermining the very principle it is designed to support – the principle of autonomy. This issue has been much discussed in medical ethics but not so much, so far, in the research ethics context. It will be argued that a more discerning and a less rigid and mechanistic approach, applied by research ethics committees, may help ensure that ethical issues are properly considered.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Tansey ◽  
James Anderson ◽  
Renaud F. Boulanger ◽  
Lisa Eckenwiler ◽  
John Pringle ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Anthony S. Kessel ◽  
Francesca Silverton

Embracing the ethical issues that arise in healthcare research is part and parcel of designing and implementing research that is based on sound moral foundations. Researchers should avoid approaching ethical considerations as a hurdle to getting the research done, and should instead think of them in the same vein as making sure the scientific methodology is correct. Similarly, research ethics committees should not be thought of as an obstacle, but as bodies whose role is to facilitate ethically acceptable research. Most of the issues that arise in research in psychiatry are generic to other areas of healthcare research, and this chapter has outlined the moral bases of these and provided a template through which they can be approached. However, because research in psychiatry inevitably may involve vulnerable participants, it is important to recognise that special attention needs to be paid to competence and ensuring consent is informed. The research arena in psychiatry is changing, and researchers will need to keep abreast of future developments, which can take the form of new guidelines from relevant bodies and also changes to the law.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 90-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Walker ◽  
I. Holloway ◽  
S. Wheeler

In recognition of the important ethical issues posed by qualitative research in health care, the authors present key questions to aid ethical review. The purpose is to assist lay and professional members of research ethics committees in their assessment of applications involving qualitative research methods and to inform researchers intending to submit such applications for ethical approval. For the benefit of those less familiar with this type of research, the authors include an overview of different types of qualitative research, together with an explanation of terms commonly used by qualitative researchers.


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