University Research Ethics Committees as learning communities: Identifying and utilising collaboratively produced knowledge in decision-making

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. ' (2005:7). They recommended inter alia that more guidance and support on research ethics training should be in place for researchers, students and REC members. In considering the framework within which the activities of a University REC are undertaken, we noted the questions about who is involved in the review and what type of research is examined. We explored the issue of decision making and diversity of membership and noted that that the structure of ethics review within a university does not in itself explain the success or otherwise of a university ethics review system. Rather, the efficacy or otherwise of a REC may be seen to relate to its effective decision making processes and how these are informed by the knowledge brought by members to the meetings of the REC. Permanent repository link

Editorial: Research ethics in space

“…The first article, by Michelle Pyer and Jackie Campbell, looks at the impact of having adults in the room when children are participating in research, and argues that this raises ethical and methodological challenges (Pyer and Campbell, 2013). The second article asks us to think about how a research ethics committee should operate, with the authors arguing that we should reconceptualize research ethics committees as learning communities (Ryan et al, 2013). Finally in this issue we have a very interesting review article by Nathan Emmerich looking at three recent books discussing the regulation of social science (Emmerich, 2013), and a case study of birth life support systems.…”