Abstract
BackgroundEthical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice particularly when research participants include vulnerable populations. This study mapped the extent of reporting ethical research practices in studies conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab World, and assessed variations by time, country of study, and study characteristics.MethodsAn electronic search of eight databases resulted in 5668 unique records published between 2000 and 2013. Scoping review yielded 164 eligible articles for analyses.ResultsEthical research practices, including obtaining institutional approval, access to the community/research site, and informed consent/assent from the research participants, were reported in 48.2, 54.9, and 53.7% of the publications, respectively. Institutional approval was significantly more likely to be reported when the research was biomedical in nature compared to public health and social (91.7% vs. 54.4 and 32.4%), when the study employed quantitative compared to qualitative or mixed methodologies (61.7% vs. 26.8 and 42.9%), and when the journal required a statement on ethical declarations (57.4% vs. 27.1%). Institutional approval was least likely to be reported in papers that were sole-authored (9.5%), when these did not mention a funding source (29.6%), or when published in national journals (0%). Similar results were obtained for access to the community site and for seeking informed consent/assent from study participants.ConclusionsThe responsibility of inadequacies in adherence to ethical research conduct in crisis settings is born by a multitude of stakeholders including funding agencies, institutional research boards, researchers and international relief organizations involved in research, as well as journal editors, all of whom need to play a more proactive role for enhancing the practice of ethical research conduct in conflict settings.
Highlights
Ethical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice when research participants include vulnerable populations
We examine in this study the extent of reporting ethical research conduct in articles on refugee and waraffected populations in the Arab world published between 2000 and 2013
Search terms relating to ethics were combined with terms related to refugees and war-affected populations (Additional file 1 shows this in more detail)
Summary
Ethical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice when research participants include vulnerable populations. In the midst of the recent sociopolitical upheavals in the Arab region, in particular the Syrian crisis, research on refugees and war-afflicted populations has become of greater interest to the broader scientific community and humanitarian agencies. When research is carried out in such humanitarian contexts, responsible ethical conduct may be overlooked [4,5,6], posing adverse consequences on the research participants who may be vulnerable, marginalized or directly affected by armed conflicts. Whilst guidelines for human subjects’ research exist in a number of academic disciplines, such as the social and medical fields, there is yet no single best ethical guideline for conducting research with refugees or war-affected populations in particular. Hunt and colleagues developed a framework for health professionals working with and alongside local and international actors and providing humanitarian assistance to individuals and communities [11]
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