A Legal Evaluation of the Legislation Regarding Scientific Research and Publishing Ethics Committees in the Fields of Social and Humanatirian Sciences and Educational Sciences in Universities: A Qualitative Research

Abstract

In Article 65 of Higher Education Law numbered 2547, formation, duties and operations of scientific research and publication ethics boards have to be regulated by regulations issued by Higher Education Council (HEC). Despite this legal obligation, ethical committees in higher education institutions are not regulated by regulation; They are regulated by HEC Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive (HECSRPED) issued in 2016. Universities also make regulations regarding these boards within their own bodies with directives issued by decisions of their senates. In the research, firstly, the literature on the ethics committees and relevant legislation are examined. Then, categories are determined by using the document review method, considering regulations of ethics committees in HECSRPED; in the context of these categories, directives issued by 3 state universities in İstanbul regarding ethics committees in fields of social and humanities and educational sciences are analyzed. Findings show that provisions of a directive issued by universities on ethics committees generally do not coincide with relevant provisions in HECSRPED and even contain significant contradictions. It has also been discussed that ethical committees in universities may harm the principle of conducting scientific research freely and cause important bureaucratic problems and workload for both researchers and board members. It has been suggested that issues related to ethical committees are regulated by HEC, eliminating illegality in directives issued by universities and that universities can issue directives on issues that are not clarified in HECSRPED. In addition, it was recommended to conduct case studies and phenomenological studies regarding ethics committees for researchers.