Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics最新文献

Study designs involving randomization can be difficult to communicate to participants, especially those with low literacy. The literature on strategies to explain research concepts is limited, especially for non-English speakers. We measured the effectiveness of a culturally and contextually situated multimedia approach to recruit a cohort of 60 female Mexican immigrants (FMI) to a randomized control trial (RCT) to reduce social isolation and depression. This strategy was designed to explain the concept of randomization, explain what participating in the research study entailed, and ensure informed consent. Potential participants viewed a presentation explaining the study and a video including animation with voice-over explaining the concept of randomization. We administered a pre/post survey. Respondents (N = 59) reported an increase in their understanding of randomization, intention to enroll, and attitude towards participating in research. We conclude that a culturally and contextually situated multimedia approach is an effective model when recruiting underrepresented populations with low literacy for RCTs.

Bridget Pratt and Adrian Harper ( 2021) conducted a comparison of articles identified through six electronic literature searches. Their aim was to "identify ethics literature… that discussed combatting neo-colonial models of research". They used manifest content analysis to compare the conceptual content of articles from the fields of global health (GH) and Australian Aboriginal health (AH). This innovative application of a literature review approach from literary and media studies, to health sciences in which literature reviews have traditionally focused on synthesizing evidence about intervention effectiveness, should be commended. It has potential to advance theoretical understandings of ethics in health research. However, I argue here that Pratt and Harper's (2021) search strategy has several weaknesses, which suggests that their results must be interpreted with caution.

Several studies have reported inadequate comprehension of informed consent for genomic research. This study aimed to assess research participants' understanding of critical elements of informed consent for genomic research. A cross-sectional survey involving 123 parents/caregivers of children participating in a paediatric genomic TB/HIV study was conducted. Only 47.2% of the participants had adequate understanding of consent information. The mean objective (actual) and subjective (perceived) understanding scores were 78.7% and 91.7% respectively. Participants adequately understood most elements of consent however, some elements were poorly understood including foreseeable risks, protection of confidentiality and compensation for research related injury. Overall there was inadequate comprehension of critical elements of informed consent and there was dissonance between actual and perceived comprehension of informed consent.

Capacity development of research ethics committees is generally limited to members, and seldom includes administrators. This study sought to map the capacity development efforts of research ethics administrators. A scoping review was conducted. The literature search yielded 92 potentially relevant records, and further screening yielded 22 studies. The 22 studies were extracted and synthesized; two studies spoke directly on administrators' capacity development, while the remaining 20 focused on the capacity development of committees or of committee members. The two studies which spoke directly on administrators reported about two capacity development efforts targeting administrators in Africa, namely the African Conference for Administrators of Research Ethics Committees, and the West African Bioethics Training Program.

Objective: To evaluate predictors of the use of anti-plagiarism detection tools (APTs) in higher education institutions.

Methods: An online survey based on the theory of planned behavior was sent to members of science faculties in Jordan. Multivariate Logistic regression was conducted to determine predictors of previous use of APTs, and multivariate linear regression to predict future intentions.

Results: A total of 173 faculty members completed the survey, with 78.13% indicating previous APTs use. Turnitin® (43%) and Ithenticate® (32.8%) were the most commonly used APTs. These tools were mainly used to evaluate papers before sending them to journals (65.5%) and to detect plagiarism in theses/dissertations (50.4%). Predictors of previous use were academic rank (p  =  0.02) and perceived understanding of APT use (p  =  0.043). Intentions for future use were predicted by attitudes (p < 0.001) and perceived behavioral control (p  =  0.036).

Conclusion: The theory of planned behavior successfully predicted intentions to use APTs. The use of APTs should be encouraged to all faculty members and students.

Deliberative democratic engagement is used around the globe to gather informed public input on contentious collective questions. Yet, rarely has it been used to convene individuals exclusively from Indigenous communities. The relative novelty of using this approach to engage tribal communities and concerns about diversity and inequities raise important methodological questions. We describe the design and quality outcomes for a 2.5-day deliberation that elicited views of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) leaders about the potential value and ethical conduct of precision medicine research (PMR), an emerging approach to research that investigates the health effects of individual genetic variation in tandem with variation in health-relevant practices, social determinants, and environmental exposures. The event met key goals, such as relationship and rapport formation, cross-site learning, equality of opportunity to participate, and respect among participants in the context of disagreement.

Individual informed consent is a central requirement for clinical research on human subjects, yet whether and how consent requirements should apply to health policy experiments (HPEs) remains unclear. HPEs test and evaluate public health policies prior to implementation. We interviewed 58 health experts in Tanzania, Bangladesh and Germany on informed consent requirements for HPEs. Health experts across all countries favored a strong evidence base, prior information to the affected populations, and individual consent for 'risky' HPEs. Differences pertained to individual risk perception, how and when consent by group representatives should be obtained and whether HPEs could be treated as health policies. The study adds to representative consent options for HPEs, yet shows that more research is needed in this field - particularly in the present Covid-19 pandemic which has highlighted the need for HPEs nationally and globally.