Why research ethics should add retrospective review

This study proposes retrospective review as an important complement to prospective review

Abstract

Research ethics is an integral part of research, especially that involving human subjects. However, concerns have been expressed that research ethics has come to be seen as a procedural concern focused on a few well-established ethical issues that researchers need to address to obtain ethical approval to begin their research. While such prospective review of research is important, we argue that it is not sufficient to address all aspects of research ethics. We propose retrospective review as an important complement to prospective review. We offer two arguments to support our claim that prospective review is insufficient.

This research was supported by the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme

Citation

Dawson, A., Lignou, S., Siriwardhana, C. et al. Why research ethics should add retrospective review. BMC Med Ethics 20, 68 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0399-1

Why research ethics should add retrospective review

Updates to this page

Published 10 October 2019