Ethics of Conducting Research

Abstract

Medical research must be conducted ethically. That requires preparation before beginning to collect any data. It is the one most important matter to attend to before starting the research, because it is the one aspect that cannot be corrected later during the writing phase. Moreover, laying a solid ethical foundation for the research before it ever starts will substantially improve the scientific quality of the research as well. This book is not about how to conduct research, nor about the ethics of research, so these topics will not be discussed in much depth here. But they must be presented briefly, because the quality of the papers depends fundamentally on these matters and because the Methods section of any paper must make reference to the ethical aspects of the research. There are four main elements for ethical research: ethics committee approval, study registration, written informed consent or animal welfare, and following ethical guidelines.