Role of ethics in research

The browser controls to adjust the font size, or print this is ethics in research & why is it important? Ideas and opinions expressed in this essay are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of the nih, niehs, or us most people think of ethics (or morals), they think of rules for distinguishing between right and wrong, such as the golden rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), a code of professional conduct like the hippocratic oath ("first of all, do no harm"), a religious creed like the ten commandments ("thou shalt not kill... This is the most common way of defining "ethics": norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable people learn ethical norms at home, at school, in church, or in other social settings. Although most societies use laws to enforce widely accepted moral standards and ethical and legal rules use similar concepts, ethics and law are not the same. Peaceful civil disobedience is an ethical way of protesting laws or expressing political r way of defining 'ethics' focuses on the disciplines that study standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology, or sociology. One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues. Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and apply to people who conduct scientific research or other scholarly or creative activities. See glossary of commonly used terms in research are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research. First, norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote the truth and minimize , since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed , many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. For instance, federal policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subjects protections, and animal care and use are necessary in order to make sure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to the , ethical norms in research also help to build public support for research. People are more likely to fund a research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of y, many of the norms of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and public health and safety. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal subjects, students, and the public. For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients, and a researcher who fails to abide by regulations and guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may jeopardize his health and safety or the health and safety of staff and and policies for research the importance of ethics for the conduct of research, it should come as no surprise that many different professional associations, government agencies, and universities have adopted specific codes, rules, and policies relating to research ethics. Many government agencies, such as the national institutes of health (nih), the national science foundation (nsf), the food and drug administration (fda), the environmental protection agency (epa), and the us department of agriculture (usda) have ethics rules for funded researchers. Other influential research ethics policies include singapore statement on research integrity, the american chemical society, the chemist professional’s code of conduct, code of ethics (american society for clinical laboratory science) american psychological association, ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct, statements on ethics and professional responsibility (american anthropological association), statement on professional ethics (american association of university professors), the nuremberg code and the world medical association's declaration of following is a rough and general summary of some ethical principals that various codes address*:Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Do not deceive colleagues, research sponsors, or the to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research design, and correspondence with agencies or data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Never t confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient sible h in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career.

The role of ethics in research

Promote their welfare and allow them to make their own t for t your colleagues and treat them to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public education, and discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors not related to scientific competence and in and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong education and learning; take steps to promote competence in science as a and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal subjects conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy; take special precautions with vulnerable populations; and strive to distribute the benefits and burdens of research fairly. It is therefore important for researchers to learn how to interpret, assess, and apply various research rules and how to make decisions and to act ethically in various situations. For example, consider the following case,The research protocol for a study of a drug on hypertension requires the administration of the drug at different doses to 50 laboratory mice, with chemical and behavioral tests to determine toxic effects. He therefore decides to extrapolate from the 45 completed results to produce the 5 additional different research ethics policies would hold that tom has acted unethically by fabricating data. If this study were sponsored by a federal agency, such as the nih, his actions would constitute a form of research misconduct, which the government defines as "fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism" (or ffp). It is important to remember, however, that misconduct occurs only when researchers intend to deceive: honest errors related to sloppiness, poor record keeping, miscalculations, bias, self-deception, and even negligence do not constitute misconduct. The error does not affect the overall results of his research, but it is potentially misleading. Failing to publish a correction would be unethical because it would violate norms relating to honesty and objectivity in are many other activities that the government does not define as "misconduct" but which are still regarded by most researchers as unethical. These are sometimes referred to as "other deviations" from acceptable research practices and include:Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling the ting the same paper to different journals without telling the informing a collaborator of your intent to file a patent in order to make sure that you are the sole ing a colleague as an author on a paper in return for a favor even though the colleague did not make a serious contribution to the sing with your colleagues confidential data from a paper that you are reviewing for a data, ideas, or methods you learn about while reviewing a grant or a papers without ng outliers from a data set without discussing your reasons in an inappropriate statistical technique in order to enhance the significance of your ing the peer review process and announcing your results through a press conference without giving peers adequate information to review your ting a review of the literature that fails to acknowledge the contributions of other people in the field or relevant prior hing the truth on a grant application in order to convince reviewers that your project will make a significant contribution to the hing the truth on a job application or curriculum the same research project to two graduate students in order to see who can do it the rking, neglecting, or exploiting graduate or post-doctoral g to keep good research g to maintain research data for a reasonable period of derogatory comments and personal attacks in your review of author's ing a student a better grade for sexual a racist epithet in the significant deviations from the research protocol approved by your institution's animal care and use committee or institutional review board for human subjects research without telling the committee or the reporting an adverse event in a human research g animals in ng students and staff to biological risks in violation of your institution's biosafety ging someone's ng supplies, books, or g an experiment so you know how it will turn unauthorized copies of data, papers, or computer over $10,000 in stock in a company that sponsors your research and not disclosing this financial rately overestimating the clinical significance of a new drug in order to obtain economic actions would be regarded as unethical by most scientists and some might even be illegal in some cases. However, they do not fall into the narrow category of actions that the government classifies as research misconduct. Indeed, there has been considerable debate about the definition of "research misconduct" and many researchers and policy makers are not satisfied with the government's narrow definition that focuses on ffp. However, given the huge list of potential offenses that might fall into the category "other serious deviations," and the practical problems with defining and policing these other deviations, it is understandable why government officials have chosen to limit their y, situations frequently arise in research in which different people disagree about the proper course of action and there is no broad consensus about what should be done. She receives a request from another research team that wants access to her complete dataset. On the one hand, the ethical norm of openness obliges her to share data with the other research team. Another option would be to offer to collaborate with the following are some step that researchers, such as dr. Wexford, can take to deal with ethical dilemmas in research:What is the problem or issue? In this case, the issue is whether to share information with the other research is the relevant information? In this case, there may be other choices besides 'share' or 'don't share,' such as 'negotiate an agreement' or 'offer to collaborate with the researchers. May be useful to seek advice from a colleague, a senior researcher, your department chair, an ethics or compliance officer, or anyone else you can trust. Wexford might want to talk to her supervisor and research team before making a considering these questions, a person facing an ethical dilemma may decide to ask more questions, gather more information, explore different options, or consider other ethical rules.

The main point is that human reasoning plays a pivotal role in ethical decision-making but there are limits to its ability to solve all ethical dilemmas in a finite amount of ing ethical conduct in academic institutions in the us require undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate students to have some education in the responsible conduct of research (rcr). The nih and nsf have both mandated training in research ethics for students and trainees. Many academic institutions outside of the us have also developed educational curricula in research of you who are taking or have taken courses in research ethics may be wondering why you are required to have education in research ethics. Indeed, you also may believe that most of your colleagues are highly ethical and that there is no ethics problem in research.. Indeed, the evidence produced so far shows that misconduct is a very rare occurrence in research, although there is considerable variation among various estimates. Of researchers per year (based on confirmed cases of misconduct in federally funded research) to as high as 1% of researchers per year (based on self-reports of misconduct on anonymous surveys). Even if misconduct is only a rare occurrence, it can still have a tremendous impact on science and society because it can compromise the integrity of research, erode the public’s trust in science, and waste time and resources. In any case, a course in research ethics will have little impact on "bad apples," one might ing to the "stressful" or "imperfect" environment theory, misconduct occurs because various institutional pressures, incentives, and constraints encourage people to commit misconduct, such as pressures to publish or obtain grants or contracts, career ambitions, the pursuit of profit or fame, poor supervision of students and trainees, and poor oversight of researchers (see shamoo and resnik 2015). In any case, a course in research ethics can be useful in helping to prevent deviations from norms even if it does not prevent misconduct. Education in research ethics is can help people get a better understanding of ethical standards, policies, and issues and improve ethical judgment and decision making. Many of the deviations that occur in research may occur because researchers simply do not know or have never thought seriously about some of the ethical norms of research. Another example where there may be some ignorance or mistaken traditions is conflicts of interest in research. A researcher may think that a "normal" or "traditional" financial relationship, such as accepting stock or a consulting fee from a drug company that sponsors her research, raises no serious ethical issues. Maybe a physician thinks that it is perfectly appropriate to receive a $300 finder’s fee for referring patients into a clinical "deviations" from ethical conduct occur in research as a result of ignorance or a failure to reflect critically on problematic traditions, then a course in research ethics may help reduce the rate of serious deviations by improving the researcher's understanding of ethics and by sensitizing him or her to the y, education in research ethics should be able to help researchers grapple with the ethical dilemmas they are likely to encounter by introducing them to important concepts, tools, principles, and methods that can be useful in resolving these dilemmas. Scientists must deal with a number of different controversial topics, such as human embryonic stem cell research, cloning, genetic engineering, and research involving animal or human subjects, which require ethical reflection and b. Icist and niehs irb d@ paperwrite to conduct ments with blakstad 214k this page on your website:Ethics in research are very important when you're going to conduct an article is a part of the guide:Select from one of the other courses available:Experimental ty and ical tion and psychology e projects for ophy of sance & tics beginners tical bution in er 17 more articles on this 't miss these related articles:2tuskegee syphilis study. Should be applied on all stages of research, such as planning, conducting and evaluating a research first thing to do before designing a study is to consider the potential cost and benefits of the ch - cost and evaluate the cost and benefits for most decisions in life, whether we are aware of it or should be applied on all stages of research, such as planning, conducting and evaluating a research first thing to do before designing a study is to consider the potential cost and benefits of the can be quite a dilemma in some experiments. Stem cell research is one example of an area with difficult ethical a result, stem cell research is restricted in many countries, because of the major and problematic ethical l standards - researchers should... The tuskegee syphilis study is an example of a study which seriously violated these use deception on people participating, as was the case with the ethics of the stanley milgram informed consent from all involved in the ve privacy and confidentiality whenever special precautions when involving populations or animals which may not be considered to understand fully the purpose of the offer big rewards or enforce binding contracts for the study. This is especially important when people are somehow reliant on the plagiarize the work of skew their conclusions based on commit science fraud, falsify research or otherwise conduct scientific misconduct. The researcher said that he had found great effects from subliminal messages, whilst he had, in fact, never conducted the use the position as a peer reviewer to give sham peer reviews to punish or damage fellow lly, research must follow all regulations given, and also anticipate possible ethical problems in their ition is an important factor in research, and may be both a good thing and a bad eblowing is one mechanism to help discover misconduct in research..

Take it with you wherever you research council of ibe to our rss blakstad on ee syphilis study - research without ion and research - ethics in m experiment ethics - should we use deception in experiments? Consent policy - avoiding deception in y in research - confidentiality in ign upprivacy / publication stages / importance of research are multiple reasons why it is necessary to adhere to the basic norms of scientific conduct during academic research. Given the competitive nature of research, it has become increasingly challenging for scientists to report unique and pioneering research. Nevertheless, the practice of misreporting data and scientific results continues to be followed by some members of the research y of research most striking example of how research misconduct can destroy the lives of people is the case of paolo macchiarini, a surgeon who became famous for a supposed medical breakthrough that promised to revolutionize organ transplantation. However, it turned out that his experiments on humans had no sound preclinical research foundation. Although researchers do recognize ethical norms, they are interpreted and applied in different ways at different institutes. Researchers usually are required to ensure conformance to ethical requirements during scientific research, including the proper design and implementation of studies that involve human or animal experiments, avoiding scientific misconduct (such as data fabrication or plagiarism), following environmental and safety regulations, adhering to norms related to authorship and intellectual property, and keeping confidentiality es of research committees play an important role in defining the standards that need to be met for research ethics and ensuring that they are met. Some influential policies relating to research ethics include those introduced by the national institutes of health (nih), the national science foundation (nsf), the american chemical society, or the european network of research ethics committees. Other guidelines such as the world medical association’s declaration of helsinki have been fundamental in defining human research e recent scandals, including the cases of paolo macchiarini, scott reuben or olivier voinnet, the awareness about research ethics seems to be increasing in the scientific community. Several resources covering the most important aspects in this area are available and many academic institutions are now introducing educational curriculums to help researchers resolve ethical dilemmas. Here are a few norms included in most codes of conduct:Dos and don’ts of research ining a good record of all your research activities and report your data as carefully and objectively as ation, manipulation or misrepresentation of se financial or personal interests that may directly/indirectly affect your ing research sponsors, colleagues, or ethical committees by having bias in data interpretation, peer review, or personnel animals with care and respect when studying them in your research and adhere to ethical any external research data (published or unpublished) without t intellectual property, privacy, and confidentiality and give proper credit for any contributions from other t irresponsible publication practices. Previous post difference between a lead author and post >> importance of ethics committees in scholarly reproducibility in chemical research be fixed? Research under er-aided peer review: how automation might influence academic more money mean more misconduct? Abena1[1] faculty of medicine and biomedical sciences, university of yaounde 1, centre region, cameroon[2] cameroon national ethics committee (cnec), yaoundé, cameroon[3] faculty of arts and modern letters, university of yaoundé 1. Ipas, chapel hill, north carolina, united states[4] faculty of sciences, university of yaoundé 1, centre region, cameroon[5] faculty of sciences, university of dschang; division of health operations research, ministry of public health cameroon, cameroon[6] health division, university of bamenda, cameroon1. Introductionthe public health ethics look at the moral basis of the health of human as a guiding support put in place to maximize welfare, and therefore health as a component of welfare [1,2]. An alternative view of public health ethics characterizes the fundamental problematic of public health ethics differently: what lies at the moral foundation of public health is social justice [2]. Public health ethics has therefore a strong moral connection to broader questions of social justice, poverty, and systematic disadvantage [3,4]. Historical ethical perspectivealthough there have been some manifested concerns about the vulnerability of human subjects implicated in clinical research for over a century, it was the scandals and tragedies of the nazi doctors during the second world war that gave birth to the discipline of bioethics [4, 5]. Other recent concerns in bioethics are attempting to extend ethical debate beyond the one-to-one physician-patient relationship, to enter the domain of public health where focused is geared towards the health of the entire populations. In the africa setting, these extended concerns are being driven in part by the persisting iniquities and disparities in the health status of the low income resource countries and the rich countries, the differences in access to health services, the differences in the effort put into solving health problems, whereby the larger health burdens of the south receive scarce research attention, and the fewer problems of the north receive most of the attention in what has been termed the 10/90 gap [6, 35].

More attempts made to redress these inequalities have led to greater research investment and north-south research collaboration with the aim of solving the major health problems affecting the population in the poor countries of the south [7, 35]. The ethical fundamental principlesfour fundamental principles of ethics have been universally recognized namely; autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. The harm principleit is likely that no classic philosophical work is cited more often in the public health ethics literature than john stuart mill's essay “on liberty” [10]. The summary of the fundamental ethical principles and their applications in public health and biomedical research illustrated by chilengi [17], is shown in table myhuman beings are born as autonomous agents. Research must primarily and actively seek not to do harm regardless of the extent of potential good that may arise from the te foreseeable risks and minimize harmbeneficencewhile minimizing harm research must be of benefit to individuals and society at large. The benefits of research must equitably be shared by those who bore the cost and risk of the subject selection and fair distribution of y of fundamental ethical principles and their applications in public health and biomedical research [17]. Some challenges related to public health research ethicsthere is no standardized method of organizing either the ethics of clinical practice, or the public health and biomedical research. Although these distinctive concerns are often dealt with under the broader term of bioethics, sometimes bioethics is presented as the equivalent of medical ethics. Whichever approach is preferred, a key question remains: what distinguishes public health ethics from medical ethics? Health has four characteristics that provide much of the subject matter for public health ethics as follows: (1) its promotion involves a particular focus on prevention; (2) it is a public or collective good; (3) it involves an intrinsic outcome-orientation and (4) its promotion often entails government action; [11, 24-26]. The rationale of public health programs and policiespublic health draws its fundamental legitimacy from the essential and direct role that health plays in human flourishing, whether that role is understood ultimately in terms of maximizing health or promoting health in the context of advancing social justice [31, 38]. They apply more specifically to traditional concerns about balancing respect for liberty with advancing health and are more prevalent in the public health ethics literature than the previous four. Thus, the task of public health ethics is not necessarily to justify each particular intervention directly [16, 41]. Clinical research in a developing nation to be deemed ethical requires community engagement, so that the research can contribute to the social value. A key question for public health ethics is on whom the duties generated by a right to health fall. Reducing such inequalities are specific priorities in the public health goals of national and international of the most difficult challenges for public health ethics emerges when moral function conflicts with the injunction to improve, if not maximize, aggregate or collective health outcomes [39]. Another challenge in social justice for public health ethics emerges when the health needs of systematically disadvantaged groups conflict with other dimensions of well-being as well as with considerations of collective efficiency. Burden distributions in ethical researchanother appeal that can be used to defend certain public health interventions that impose unequal burdens on different members of a population relies on considerations of fairness. From the standpoint of public health ethics, however, whether libertarian paternalism is appropriately titled is less important than the moral issues it raises and how it is justified [1, 52]. Research for low income ecomomiesmedical research is sometimes undertaken in the low income economies in order to further the understanding and treatment of diseases, not primarily for the benefit of those in the developing world, but rather for the benefit of citizens of the developed world. In such cases, participants and their communities might well claim that they are entitled to share in the benefits of the research [9, 16].

Note that this is a different issue from the question of whether researchers working on indigenous diseases in the developing world have a duty to provide medical care or other ancillary services to their research subjects [5, 21]. Uneven research focusmuch medical research is focused on diseases that affect less than 10% of the world's population, while millions die every year from diseases that potentially could be prevented or more easily treated if only enough research and other medical resources were devoted to them [1, 20]. The role of the ethics committeethere are many synonymous for committees that review and approve biomedical research protocols to safeguard the dignity, rights, safety and well being of actual or potential research participants (who, 2000; tedlock, 1983). Such as independent ethics committee (iec), institutional review boards (irb), institutional ethics committee (iec), national ethics committee (nec) and ethics review boards (erb) are interchangeably used. Other publications have provided ethical framework for evaluating whether proposed research is ethical (cioms, 2008, emmanuel et al. It is important therefore to look at the different roles of stakeholders in ethical sibilities of the participantsthe greatest role of erb is to ensure that research that is conducted among the communities is ethical. Also important to this obligation is to ensure that in its basic setup, composition, operations and follow up activities are such that the mandate of protecting research participants is carried out ch and legal liabilitylegal liability claims against health professionals were traditionally confined to those who engaged in clinical practice. However, in recent years an increasing number of civil claims have emerged in the health research realm. In this regard, three trends have emerged: (1) the types of legal claims have diversified; (2) the number and types of defendants named in such lawsuits have increased beyond researchers; and (3) class action lawsuits are increasingly being lodged on behalf of groups of research subjects (mello et al. While the overwhelming number of research-related lawsuits has arisen in affluent countries, the filing of multi-jurisdictional lawsuits against drug maker, pfizer, in relation to its trovan drug trial in nigeria illustrates that developing countries are also becoming battlegrounds from lawsuits against those involved in research. This work outlines the liability risks of researchers, host institutions, research ethics committees, consulting bioethicists, and research sponsors through a review of sample cases involving these parties. There exist a number of liabilities in the ethical conduct of research involving all the stakeholder that can be outline as follows:research liabilitythis involves civil claims against researchers which in the early days centered around the notion of informed consent if we consider the case of wess versus solomon (1989), the heirs of a subject who died while a volunteer in a non therapeutic study successfully sued the investigator and his university-affiliated hospital. The judge found the principal investigator and hospital, through its research ethics committee responsible for not disclosing a rare fatal complication caused by fluorescent dye and not adequately screening the subject who suffered from undisclosed hypertropic ch ethics committee liabilityresearch ethics committee (recs) or institutional review boards (irbs), are responsible for assessing human research protocols for conformity to ethical principles (zlotnik shaul, 2002). Recs liability has been recognized as far back as in the 70s, when the us national commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral research published a report captioned report and recommendation: institutional review board (ncphsbbr, 1978). This may occur if their approval led to a research activity and injuries that would not have occurred if a reasonable person, confronted with the same information would have placed conditions on the research that would have prevented the injury. Therefore an injured can possibly press charges for negligence by the irb members in assessing the risks and benefits of proposed research, or in approving consent procedures not necessarily likely to assure legally effective consent. Illustrated case is that in the us of berman versus fred hutshinson cancer centre (2002) where the husband of a research participant (hamilton) died in a chemotherapy trail brought filed a law suit against the fred hutchinson cancer centre alleging that his wife’s consent to participate in the study was not informed because the institution failed to disclosed the following:that the researchers had no idea whether the relevant drugs would have any protective effect against organ damage; hamilton would not receive the planned dosage of the drug if she were unable to ingest the oral version of the drug; seven prior protocol participants had died, one of whom had suffered serious organ damage; and there were alternative treatments that were less risky and were reporting a significantly higher cure rate. The trial court handling the case ruled that the fred hutchinson cancer research centre’s failure to disclose the unavailability of the intravenous form of the drug invalidated hamilton’s consent to participate in the icist liabilitythe bioethicist liability case can be exemplified in the robertson case where the plaintiffs’ alleged that the consulting bioethicist in the matter was careless, negligent and reckless for the following: failing to exercise reasonable care under all of the circumstance, in accordance with the accepted bioethical practice; failing to follow and abide by by the guidelines set forth by various governmental agencies and acting r laibilitythe most high profile lawsuit filed against a study sponsor are those lodged against the us pharmaceutical firm, pfizer, y the nigerian plaintiffs and authorities. To begin with, it illustrates that research participants in the developing countries are gaining increasing awareness of their rights and are prepared to act accordingly. The second point is that research conducted by us sponsors of research in developing countries is actionable against those sponsors in the us. Thirdly, research liability lawsuits may also be brought by government authorities, even though they were not the affected parties.

Such agreements should be negotiated between all relevant stakeholders before any clinical research can commence, and that a dispute resolution mechanism are jurisdictional issues are prospectively determined in the case of any foreseeable dispute. Contribution of international research integrity (iri) in public health research promotionnational science foundation nsf implementation of section 7009 of the america creating opportunities to meaningfully promote excellence in technology, education, and science (competes) act requires that the authorized organizational representative complete a certification at the time of proposal submission that the institution has a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers who will be supported by nsf to conduct research. Additional information on nsf’s responsible conduct of research (rcr) policy is available in the award and administration guide, chapter iv. With the increasing globalization of science and engineering research and education, and the associated issues related to the responsible conduct of research within a global context, nsf recognizes that projects involving international partners may present special risks and challenges. Maintaining high standards of ethical and scientific integrity helps to maintain public trust in the research enterprise. Just like in clinical research and biomedicine, epidemiologists and other public health researchers have the responsibility to exhibit and foster the very highest standards of scientific integrity [46]the following resources are provided to assist in developing training and oversight plans for the responsible and ethical conduct of research in an international context and to understand the codes of conduct in other countries. National institute of health in public health research clinical excellencethe national institute for health and clinical excellence (nice) is a special health authority of the english national health service (nhs), serving both english nhs and the welsh nhs. Institute of tropical medicine and hygiene in public health research ethicsthe london school of hygiene and tropical medicine is an institution promoting research in public health through the introduction of research training courses which aim at equipping students with skills needed to appreciate and analyze public health problems in developing countries, and to design and evaluate actions to improve public health. All the public health students are expected to have a substantial experience of planning or implementation of public health programmes, of teaching or research, in developing countries. Graduates from this course work in global health, health service management, in health programmes in developing countries, in international and national ngos, and in research. Primary health care, medical anthropology, epidemiology and control of malaria, and population studies); apply these skills to identify and assess public health problems in developing countries and evaluate actions designed to improve public health; formulate public health strategies and approaches to public health problems appropriate to a given culture and environment; and apply appropriate research skills for evaluation and use of research findings. World health organization (who) in public health research ethicshealth ethics has been an integral part of the activities of many units and departments at who for many years and is addressed not only within the department of ethics and social determinants (esd) and throughout the organization. Esd works collaboratively with staff from all departments and the regional offices to identify, design, and carry out projects addressing the ethics of health care, public health, and biomedical science. In october 2002, the world health organization launched its ethics and health initiative to provide a focal point for the examination of the ethical issues raised by activities throughout the organization, including the regional and country offices, and to develop activities regarding a wide range of global bioethics topics, from organ and tissue transplantation to developments in genomics, and from research with human beings to fair access to health services. Work in ethics and health is now carried out by the department of ethics and social determinants in the innovation, information, research and evidence cluster at headquarters. This department is involved in a wide range of ethics activities, both on its own initiative and in response to the needs of other parts of who. Nepad in promoting public health research in africathe new partnership for africa’s development (nepad) is a socio-economic development programme of the african union (au) whose express objective is to stimulate africa’s development by bridging existing gaps in infrastructure (energy, water and sanitation, transport and ict); agriculture and food security; human resource development, especially health/education, youth and training, social affairs; science, technology and innovation; trade, industry/market access and private sector development; environment/climate change and tourism; governance/public administration, peace and security; capacitydevelopment, and gender development. Key to these goals is the promotion of transnational research and development (r&d) programmes4. Secondly, africa needs to position itself strategically with regard to shaping and driving a new research and innovation agenda necessary for disease treatment and diagnosis. Worse still, africa is not a key player in the public health research and innovation enterprises. Consequently, the current global funding arrangements for public health, including for global pandemics like hiv/aids and neglected diseases, must go beyond merely treating the symptoms through the provision of treatment but should also focus on building requisite health research and development [53] infrastructure on the continent.

On the other hand, africa must invest in setting up or transforming research institutions that are not only knowledge-based but also oriented towards product development. The role that science plays in our lives continues to gain more significance and recognition in importance, and society, in turn, has a stake in science. The eu's commitment to ethics in research is reflected in explicit requirements, and more specifically in the evaluation of project proposals. Ethics may be context-dependent, but any research team's approach to ethical matters is taken as an indication of the honesty and the clarity of its proposal. While there are rarely clear-cut answers when it comes to ethics, some areas are excluded from eu funding by definition. These are human cloning for reproductive purposes, altering the genetic heritage of human beings, and creating human embryos only to conduct research or obtain stem cells [54]. The fundamental ethical principles need to have its place in the global public health research sectors. With the increase research in finding new investigational products, developing new disease diagnostics techniques puts the human population into a vulnerable position vis a vis participation into clinical research trials. It is therefore imperative for the public health sector to place more emphasis in the implementation of research that is ethical. Medical research should be undertaken in the low income economies in order to further the understanding and treatment of poverty related diseases, primarily for the benefit of those in the developing world, not rather for the benefit of citizens of the developed world. Ethics is therefore a non negotiable principle and policy in public health clinical research practice. It is also evident with increasing clinical research that there shall be more potential legal issues. This calls for more scrutiny in the institutions that be in regulating the ethical framework in the conduct of human research. Those implicate in research should ensure that they are fully versed with their legal rights and obligations associated with the research they are engaged in, and also in tuned with the import and export regulations relevant to biological material transfer, data sharing as the shortcoming of these regulation are potential points for legal liability. Acknowledgementswe wish to acknowledge the special financial grant from the ministry of higher education of cameroon, the edctp grant award to the national ethics committee of cameroon, and the financial support from the university of bamenda. All contributed to the research and processing of this invited write-up by intech nces1 -. The meaning of genetic research results: reflections from individuals with and without a known genetic disorder. Politics and public health ethics in practice: right and left meet right and l of public health management practice. Honesty is an internal norm of medical practice and the best an journal of bioethics. Scott, al,social, and cultural considerations for the site selection for research with genetically modified mosquitoes. Composition, training needs and independence of ethics review committees across africa: are the gate-keepers rising to the emerging challenges?

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