Abstract
The need for improved ethics guidelines in a changing research landscape
Highlights
The term non-medical refers to the application of social science and humanities methodologies and instruments relating to human participants outside of medical, clinical or therapeutic settings
Based on the foregoing, it is appropriate to ask whether national and global guidelines on research ethics involving human participants are fit for purpose, because (1) these guidelines have been developed mainly for medical rather than non-medical research and (2) they do not speak to the specific methods of data collection and analysis, and the nature of risk and vulnerability, used in many areas of the social sciences and humanities
The important point is that new research instruments and participant groups available to social science researchers may give rise to new types of ethical issues related to confidentiality, anonymity, privacy and consent that are not covered by existing guidelines
Summary
Ethics guidelines for conducting research involving human subjects have been informed by practices and procedures developed for, and with reference to, medical research.[1,2] This indication is clear from international guidelines on research ethics practices, including the Belmont Report[3] and the Declaration of Helsinki[4]. There are limitations as to the extent to which they can be applied to research that involves human subjects but in non-medical and non-therapeutic settings (here termed human participants) In this context, the term non-medical refers to the application of social science and humanities methodologies and instruments relating to human participants outside of medical, clinical or therapeutic settings. The term non-medical refers to the application of social science and humanities methodologies and instruments relating to human participants outside of medical, clinical or therapeutic settings This type of research includes data collection using qualitative and interactive methods, such as interviews, questionnaires, workshops, focus groups and ethnographic observations.
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