Determining the Level of Statisticians’ Participation in Canadian-based Research Ethics Committees

In many research institutions, local research ethics committees (RECs) (henceforth to be referred to as research ethics boards (REBs)) are trusted to advance or safeguard the research ethics at the institution. These are autonomous bodies whose primary role is to advance the protection or safety of human or animal subjects in medical research and to promote or foster high ethical standards for the conduct of research. As defined by the Group of Medical Advisors (GMA-5) [1] ethics are “principles of right conduct, guiding what ought to be done. Although they may reflect enduring moral values, ethics are not static but evolve with time (MR87)”. As attested to by the rigorous guidelines that include the Belmont Report [2], NIH95 [3], the Helsinki Declaration [4], CIOMS93 [5], CIOMS91 [6], CIOMS85 [7] and GMA-5 [1], high ethical conduct for research involving human subjects has appropriately taken centre stage, with some degree of consensus by the international community on what proper ethical conduct for research involving human beings should entail; the Nuremberg code [13] is one such example. For detailed list of bibliographies on ethical issues in research involving human subjects, we refer the reader to the National Library of Medicine website: