Research ethics, publication ethics and good practice guidelines and resources


''Authors, editors and publishers all have ethical obligations with regard to the publication of the results of research. Authors have a duty to make publicly available the results of their research on human subjects and are accountable for the completeness and accuracy of their reports. They should adhere to accepted guidelines for ethical reporting. Negative and inconclusive as well as positive results should be published or otherwise made publicly available. Sources of funding, institutional affiliations and conflicts of interest should be declared in the publication. Reports of research not in accordance with the principles of this Declaration should not be accepted for publication.''
                              Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical principles for medical research


Guidelines and guides

World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Last amended October 2008

Standards and Operational Guidance for Ethics Review of Health-Related Research with Human Participants, WHO 2011

NIH Bioethics Resources (guidelines, policies, educational resources), US

Ethics and Research Guidance. Medical Research Council, UK 

World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) ethics resources

Code of Conduct . Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

CSE's White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications . Council of Science Editors (CSE)

Good scientific practice in research and scholarship. European Science Foundation Policy Briefing. Dec 2000 

Universal Ethical Code for Scientists. Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills. Government Office for Science, UK  

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Principles for Protecting Integrity in the Conduct and Reporting Of Clinical Trials. 2006 

Guidelines for the Responsible Conduct of Research: Ethics and the Publication Process
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Miguel Roig. Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing. 2006

UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) Code of Practice for Research: Promoting good practice and preventing misconduct. Recommended Checklist for Researchers 2009

Research Councils UK (RCUK). Integrity, clarity and good management. Policy and Code of Conduct on the Governance of Good Research Conduct. July 2009

Good practice in research and Consent to research. UK General Medical Council 2010

The ENCePP Code of Conduct for Scientific Independence and Transparency in the Conduct of Pharmacoepidemiological and Pharmacovigilance Studies. European Medicine Agency. 2010


CODEX - rules and guidelines for research (online access to codes, laws, regulations, rules and guidelines). 

Codes of Ethics Collection - collection of codes of ethics for all scientific disciplines hosted by Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at Illinois Institute of Technology, USA (Health Care and Medicine codes page)


Conflict of interest:

ICMJE: Uniform Format for Disclosure of Competing Interests in ICMJE Journals. Updated July 2010
Editorial: http://www.icmje.org/updated_coi.pdf
Disclosure form: http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf

WAME Conflict of Interest Policy Statement. March 2009

Rothman DJ, McDonald WJ, Berkowitz CD, Chimonas SC, DeAngelis CD, Hale RW, et al. Professional medical associations and their relationships with industry: a proposal for controlling conflict of interest. JAMA 2009 Apr 1;301(13):1367-72. PMID: 19336712


Publishers' policies on publication ethics

American Chemical Society (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/ethics/index.html)
American Physiological Society (http://www.the-aps.org/publications/authorinfo/index.htm)
American Society of Plant Biologists (http://www.aspb.org/publications/ethics.cfm)
BMJ Group (http://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/forms-policies-and-checklists/transparency-policy)
Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/editorshome.editors/Introduction)
Nature Publishing Group (http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/publication.html)
Royal Society (http://royalsocietypublishing.org/site/authors/policy.xhtml)
Springer (http://www.springer.com/authors/journal+authors?SGWID=0-154202-12-601001-0)
Taylor & Francis (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pdf/announcements/tmph_guidelines06.pdf)
Wiley-Blackwell (http://www.wiley.com/bw/publicationethics/)


Courses

Online Research Ethics Course, Office of Research Integrity (ORI), US

Resources for Research Ethics Education, University of California, US


Other resources

Judy E. Stern, Ph.D. and Deni Elliott, Ed.D.The Ethics of Scientific Research. A guidebook for course development. University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 1997







Page last edited: 12 April 2012