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Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine pp 1–2Cite as

Ethics Committee

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Synonyms

Research ethics committee

Definition

An ethics committee is a committee dedicated to the rights and well-being of research subjects and makes decisions regarding whether or not proposed research studies are ethical to permit to go ahead.

The emphasis on ethical research arose out of concern regarding unethical experiments on humans that occurred during the Second World War. This led to the “Nuremberg Code,” which continues to inform current day ethics statements. This includes the ten basic principles that must be observed when performing medical experiments in order to satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts (BMJa 1996). The Nuremberg Code was informed the Declaration of Helsinki, which was devised in 1964 in order to meet the needs of the biomedical community (BMJb 1996). This has been revised six times; the most recent version was written in 2008. The Declaration of Helsinki stipulates that research protocols should be reviewed by specially appointed committee...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, William James College, Newton, MA, USA

    Jane Upton

Authors
  1. Jane Upton
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Correspondence to Jane Upton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc Gellman

Section Editor information

  1. School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Anna C. Whittaker

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Upton, J. (2019). Ethics Committee. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_456-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_456-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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