How can we reform research ethics management to make it fit for purpose?

Abstract

Dissatisfaction with the prevailing systems of research ethics governance has been voiced for decades, so changing research ethics management practice is not a new idea. In fact, in some quarters, often far from Euro-Western universities and health authorities, positive change has already taken place. We discuss eight systematically selected case studies, and Indigenous research ethics, as examples of alternative frameworks. These are all value-based, and we suggest that eight of the key values found therein could inform a purpose-built research ethics management system. The eight key values are: respect, honesty, justice, care, accountability, fairness, diversity and reflection. We argue that research ethics committees and institutional review boards should be at the vanguard of normalising justice-oriented considerations and reciprocal ways of working in research, and reframing research ethics as a proactive and supportive relational process rather than a reactive and instrumental transactional event. Values are not static, they change as contexts change, and research ethics management needs to be agile and flexible to recognise and work with these changes. Also, the values of people being researched should carry equal weight to the values of those governing and doing research. We see three reasons for hope: recognition that reforms are needed, the changes which have already taken place, and the fact that those changes have laid a pathway to wider reforms. The answers to the questions of how to reform research ethics management to make it fit for purpose are already here, simply waiting to be scaled up.