{"id":5630,"date":"2016-12-05T19:15:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T13:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=5630"},"modified":"2020-10-26T05:39:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T23:39:24","slug":"importance-of-ethics-committees-in-scholarly-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/importance-of-ethics-committees-in-scholarly-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of Ethics Committees in Scholarly Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethics committees review research proposals involving human participants and their data to ensure that they agree with local and international ethical guidelines. They also monitor studies once they begin and\u2014if necessary\u2014may take part in follow-up actions after the end of the research. Their main responsibility is to protect the subjects involved in the study and also consider the possible risks to the community and the environment. Ethics committees<\/a> have the authority to approve, reject, modify, or stop studies that do not conform to the accepted standards.<\/p>\n

Role of Ethics Committees<\/h2>\n

Most journals do not publish any results unless they have been approved by an ethics committee and they may withdraw published articles that exhibit any ethical problems. Recently, a study published<\/a> in the journal Disability and Society<\/em>\u00a0was retracted after the human research ethics committee at the University of Waikato<\/a> in New Zealand expressed concerns over the publishing methods used in the study.<\/p>\n

The paper described the case of a girl who was born with a brain injury and was treated with hormones to keep her small, making it easier for her parents to take care of her. The procedure\u2014known as the Ashley treatment<\/a>\u2014is rather controversial but seems to be on the rise. Although the Disability and Society<\/em>\u00a0study only analyzed a particular case (without actually involving any clinical subjects), the report was apparently inaccurate. The girl\u2019s family finally decided to file a complaint against it.<\/p>\n

In a similar case, the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery<\/em> retracted another manuscript about a heart surgery technique<\/a> after discovering that the researchers did not have ethics approval to perform the procedure on 130 patients. It turned out that the Iranian Cardiac Surgical Society had already asked the authors to stop using the method back in 2004, six years before the study was complete. In the retraction notice, the editor-in-chief also advised other surgeons to refrain from using this technique.<\/p>\n

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Greater Transparency in Ethics Committees<\/h2>\n

It is clear that poor regulation can cause severe harm to patients, as demonstrated in the case of Paolo Macchiarini<\/a>, where a series of irregularities<\/a> surrounding his recruitment and research activities at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm served as a platform for his unacceptable behavior. Thus, independent and reliable committees are essential to ensure high ethical standards in the scientific community.<\/p>\n

In a study published recently in the British Medical Journal<\/em>, a group of scientists have called for more transparency<\/a> in the processes followed by the ethics committee. According to the researchers, any documentation related to the ethical approval of clinical trials should be freely available, allowing ethical decisions to be publicly reviewed and discussed. They believe that this could help researchers to minimize participant harms and maintain public trust.<\/p>\n

Members of an Ethics Committee<\/h2>\n

Most research ethics committees<\/a> include both individuals with scientific or medical expertise and non-scientists. The reason is that some risks, particularly those related to social, legal, or cultural considerations, may be more easily identified by non-scientific members, whereas the procedures and scientific validity of the study design must be evaluated by experts in the field. Ideally, gender balance and social diversity should also be reflected in the committee\u2019s composition. Moreover, the membership should be designed in such a way as to minimize conflicts of interest in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n

Good Team Work is Essential<\/h2>\n

There are several situations where researchers and ethics committees must work together. These include<\/p>\n