institutional review board ; research ethics ; research ethics consultation ; research ethics consultation service ; ethical decision making ; organizational ethical climates
Abstract
As biomedical research becomes more interdisciplinary and subjects more diversified, an increasing
emphasis is being placed on the ethics of biomedical research. Conventional research ethics is based on
the oversight of institutional review boards (IRBs), which are commonly criticized for being ineffective in
today’s changing research environment. Although various suggestions have been made concerning how
to improve IRB-based research ethics, relatively little attention has been given to the perspective of organizational
ethics. Yet in order to improve the decision-making of individual researchers it is crucial to understand
the structure of the organizations in which those decisions are made. Research ethics consultation
(REC) takes a systemic approach to organizational ethics and assists the decisions and practices of both
individuals as well as organizations. This article argues for the necessity of REC and describes how REC
services should be structured.