OBJECTIVE To assess the function of the new system of review by multicentre research ethics committees and to highlight areas where improvement is still needed. DESIGN Prospectively collected data from a multicentre study was examined with respect to the ethics review process. Administrative, financial, and time elements of the review process were audited. SETTING A single multicentre resea...

OBJECTIVES To investigate how distressing participating in medical research is perceived to be, compared to everyday events. DESIGN Anonymous questionnaire. SETTING Scotland and New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS One hundred members of the Scottish general public, 94 University of Auckland students, 22 New Zealand Ministry of Health ethics committee members. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Distress rating...

This special issue of theHPJAdeals with ethics and health promotion. The accompanying editorial focuses particularly on Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval for health promotion research, evaluation and quality assurance (QA), based on the first three papers in this issue. In this brief editorial, we introduce the remaining papers, noting some common threads that are woven through th...

The journal has been informed by the authors' institution that, contrary to the statement in this article [1], the Macquarie University Human Ethics Committee did not receive an application for ethics approval for this study. As the study was conducted without institutional ethics committee oversight, this article has been retracted. Reference 1. The effect of a sports chiropractic manual thera...

The Competent Authority has been notified. The clinical investigator is anxious to begin. Just when the process of conducting a clinical investigation is proceeding as planned, the ethics committee issues an unfavourable opinion. This article discusses the actions that should be taken to avoid this occurrence and how to meet other requirements related to ethics committees.

BACKGROUND Clinical trials throughout the world must be evaluated by research ethics committees. No one has yet attempted to clearly quantify at the national level the activity of ethics committees and describe the characteristics of the protocols submitted. The objectives of this study were to describe 1) the workload and the activity of Research Ethics Committees in France, and 2) the charact...

author (which had been accepted but not yet published) that also seemed to be plagiarised. However, the author’s hospital did not respond. In another of the four cases (09-11), an editor had concerns about the ethics of a trial of a homoeopathic treatment for HIV/AIDS. The editor was concerned that patients may have been denied effective antiretroviral treatment and wanted clarification about h...

Formal clinical ethics review first developed in the USA and most hospitals there have structures in place. This is often a clinical ethics committee. Developments have been slower in the UK, where there has been uncertainty and variability about the role of clinical ethics committees. Even in the USA, their exact role is uncertain. Although we now have a good idea of the mechanisms for ethical...