research ethics

Professional ethics in research addresses the ethical challenges in various fields of studies. The higher the quality of research is, the faster the scientific advancement of society will be. The present study is aimed at a comparative study of compliance with professional research ethics in medical theses by Faculty Members and students.

Methods and Materials: This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 130 medical students and 98 professors at Abadan University of Medical Sciences in 2022-2023. Students were randomly sampled, while professors were sampled by the census method. Data were collected using demographic and professional ethics in research questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software and independent t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation tests.

Compared to students, the overall score of professional ethics in research and all its dimensions were higher among professors. There was a direct correlation between the scores of professional ethics in research and its dimensions in professors and students. Moreover, the seven dimensions of professional ethics in research had a significant direct correlation with each other and with the total score of professional ethics.

The adherence to research ethics was higher among professors compared to students; however, the score for professors was still moderate to high. Training in ethical principles in research may lead to improved quality and credibility of research. Hence, it is recommended to emphasize adherence to professional ethics in research to preserve and advance science and knowledge.

Explanation, as one of the most basic goals of science, is an important part of every scientific article that seeks to find the basic causes of any phenomenon or fact, and reports the relationship between various aspects of that phenomenon or fact, and helps readers to gain a deeper and more scholarly understanding about the topic. In spite of this, the introduction of its nature and functions has not been sufficiently considered. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify and introduce the criteria and indicators for measuring the quality of explanation in medical science articles through a systematic review of scientific documents.

The data were collected through a systematic search in Iranian databases, including IranDoc, Scientific Information Database (SID), and Civilica, as well as international databases such as PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar search engine. During this process, 52 articles published between 2020 and 2024 were retrieved, and 13 documents were selected for study and analysis using the PRISMA checklist. Data analysis was performed using Altheide's method.

The research identified 14 basic indicators and categorized them in the form of three criteria for measuring the quality of explanation: "pivotal relationship" with two indicators of causality and reason exploration; "evidence-oriented" with four indicators of validity and correctness of evidence, access to evidence, efficiency of evidence and adequacy in quantity and quality, and "theory-oriented" with eight indicators of testability, reproducibility, simplification and being economical, experimental adaptability, theoretical adaptability, adaptability and conformity, comprehensiveness, and predictability. Among the criteria identified, the theory-oriented criterion had the highest number of indicators among the criteria mentioned in the review articles.

By using the identified criteria and indicators, researchers can improve the quality of their scientific explanations and significantly increase the impact of research results.

 Research ethics effectively influences the quality of research. Since a significant portion of research is conducted by faculty members and students, it is essential that academic institutions uphold scientific and ethical research standards. This study aimed to assess the extent to which research ethics is adhered to by medical faculty members and students.

 This descriptive-analytical study was carried out during the 2022-23 academic year on 130 medical students and 98 faculty members at Abadan University of Medical Sciences. Students were selected through simple random sampling, while faculty members were included through the census method. Data were collected using demographic and research ethics questionnaires and then analyzed using SPSS 18. Statistical tests, including the independent t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation, were applied at a significance level of Lees than P<0.05.

Ethical Considerations: 

The study was conducted and published in full compliance with ethical principles.

 The overall research ethics score and all of its dimensions, except for the justice dimension, were higher among faculty members (148) compared to students (101). There was a significant and direct correlation between the research ethics scores of faculty members and students, observed across all evaluated dimensions (P<0.001). Additionally, significant correlations were found between faculty members and students in the dimensions of professional competence (r=0.762, P<0.001), commitment to truth-seeking (r=0.767, P<0.001), benefit (r=0.786, P<0.001), respect for respondents (r=0.769, P<0.004), research activities (r=0.803, P<0.001), justice (r=0.730, P<0.001) and the overall research ethics score (r=0.804, P<0.001).

 The adherence to research ethics was higher among faculty members compared to students; however, the score among faculty members was still average. Hence, it is recommended that greater emphasis be placed on adhering to research ethics principles as a vital and essential component of research, with the aim of enhancing the quality of knowledge production and dissemination.

The ethics of reviewing scientific works is a crucial aspect of research ethics in the field of health, where the outcomes significantly impact prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and management, highlighting the importance of the quality of research results. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop a charter for the ethical peer review of scientific works in the field of health. The significance of this commentary lies in that researchers’ and reviewers’ adherence to ethical principles can contribute to enhancing the quality of scientific works aimed at prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and management in the field of health. This charter can serve as a framework for scientific work review systems, assisting research managers in identifying the ethical components essential for reviewing scientific works in the field of health to develop effective research policies and plans. Moreover, it would help reviewers and practitioners at journals, research centers, and institutes, facilitating accurate, fair, and unbiased reviews of scientific works in the field of health.

In this era, with the increase in research, the issue of ignoring the basic principles of research ethics, including determining the share of authors, is raised more than before. Different models for writing this section have been presented in reputable journals and the study endeavors to compare them to provide a practical model for writing participation in the guidelines of Persian language journals.

This review article uses English and Persian keywords: Writing Instructions, Authors' Participation Guide, Authors' Collaboration Statement, to review and compare how to write the Authors' Participation section on the website of medical publishers and instructions of reputable Persian and English journals in the databaseses such as Iranmedex, Google Scholar.

After reviewing websites and magazines and removing duplicates, twelve writing patterns were identified and compared in terms of different aspects. Finally, combining different patterns and taking the strengths of each, in compliance with ICMJE and COPE criteria, the use of visual patterns to facilitate its completion, the possibility of accurate monitoring of the order of names, and ease of understanding by readers, a pattern was offered. In this template, while providing definitions of ICMJE criteria, the authors' contribution in the predefined Excel file is determined and finally, the amount of participation is presented in a table with a color spectrum called "Color-Coded Contributions" with the ability to be included in the article.

The proposed model in this study, based on the strengths of previous models, has provided a simple application framework. Therefore, its use in journals to comply with authors' criteria, which is one of the important indicators in the field of research ethics, could be useful.

Education, as one of the scientific, cultural and educational structures, despite having a huge human force, including caring and educated teachers and gifted and creative students, has been somewhat involved with the difficulties of research, which does not have a clear strategy for research, and this has caused It cannot define and institutionalize the place of research and researcher and their role in the progress and development and excellence of the society, and it only causes a large part of scholars to stay away from research, but it also reduces the motivation to study and creates the ground for depression and job burnout. In order to solve their problem, higher education institutions and research centers, but also education, should adjust to the necessity of reforming and changing the research structure and mechanisms and techniques and research management methods, and seek to increase the productivity of research, including effective measures in this field of the program. He pointed out the strategic planning of the existence of structures, methods, guidelines, organization of the use of technological equipment and human resources, and culture building, so that problems and weaknesses can be identified and solved with appropriate solutions, and the ground is prepared for the scientific and research dynamism of cultural workers. The realization of this important matter requires the determination of the authorities. and the custodians of education in order to be able to take a step in updating science and knowledge and cultural workers. In this direction, in order to realize the research goals of education and culture, examining the extent of cultural researchers' adherence to research ethics has been an inevitable thing, and knowing it in order to promote The qualitative and quantitative level of research and increasing the research efficiency of educators is very necessary. Therefore, in this article, the level of adherence to research ethics among the cultural researchers of Arak education is analyzed in order to provide a suitable model for promoting adherence to research ethics among educators.

Retraction of articles is a mechanism used to remove inaccurate and incomplete articles and to correct scientific background. The aim of the present study was to provide a comprehensive analysis of the retraction trend of publications from 10 countries with the highest prevalence on the web of science during 2000-2020.

In this applied descriptive study, data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) and "Retraction Watch" databases using the scientometric method. From all countries with retracted publications (RP), 10 countries were selected as a purposive sample and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings showed that 90% of all RP indexed in the WoS during 2000-2020 occurred in 10 countries: China, United States, Japan, India, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and France. Moreover, it was found that in addition to the upward trend, the slope of RP has increased in recent years. The results also indicated that China, USA, and Japan had the highest number of RP with 42.8, 26.8, and 8.1%. Among the universities, Islamic Azad University was in the first rank with 138 (2.4%) retracted publications. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient revealed that there was a weak and positive correlation between rank in the frequency of scientific outputs and rank in the number of retracted documents.

Familiarity and attention to the reasons for the retraction of publications can prevent the rapid growth of these documents in the future. The ascending trend in the retraction of publications in the 10 countries is worrying, requiring the serious attention of scientific authors and policymakers.

Ethics in research is one of the most widely used categories of professional ethics. Research ethics focuses on the objective and partial cases of observing ethics in research and tries to solve the ethical problems of scientific research. The present study intends to survey the rate of observance of research ethics in medical research and design a questionnaire of ethics.

This is a descriptive survey research. The statistical population included all the 20998 faculty members of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and the statistical sample was 378 people who were selected to participate in the study using the probability method. The data collection tool was a self- constructed questionnaire resulting from thematic qualitative content analysis. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used for data analyzing. Cronbach's alpha method was used to evaluate the reliability, and a statistical analysis of the results was done by SPSS and PLS software.

The results of exploratory factor analysis showed seven factors equal to 60.170% of the variance. These factors were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis by smart PLS software. The reliability of the questionnaire was obtained by Cronbach's alpha method equal to 0.915.

The final version of this 35 items questionnaire is approved by 7 factors (adherence to research ethics, consequences of research ethics, barriers to good behavior in research, institutionalization of ethics, individual principles, policy-making, and organizational ethics), and this valid and reliable tool can be used to measure the level of professional ethics in medical research.

The development of medical research in recent decades has shown the need for the rule of moral values and the institutionalization of human principles in scientific-research centers. Existence of deviations and abuses in the research path has led to the establishment of ethical laws and close supervision. The purpose of this study is reviewing the factors affecting ethics in medical research.

The present study was conducted by the literature searching in Persian and English languages in the electronic databases including; Google scholars, SID, Magiran and PubMed, with 2006 to 2019 date limitation. The search keywords of "ethics", "medical sciences", "personal factors" and "environmental factors" were used for searching mentioned databases.

The literature reviews indicated that the factors affecting the observance of research ethics have reported in two general axes of individual factors and environmental factors. The researcherchr('39')s ignorance of the norms and rules of research ethics, convenience and rapid achievement of results, religious beliefs, researcher personality and attitude, researcher conscience, tendency to earn a degree, economic problems, time limitations, and  Being influenced by the environment and others are Internal factors that affected on the rate and regard of research ethics. External factors such as lack of time, financial and economic pressures, forcing students to submit scientific papers, Lack of cooperation between students and professors, worries about job finding in future or employment conditions losing, competitive atmosphere among students to Raise their resume, Professorschr('39') role and impact on studentschr('39') behavior, and competitive atmosphere creating that affect research ethics.

According to the reviewed studies, the current state of research ethics is far from ideal. It is needed serious action and fundamental changes in supervisor and policy-making to bridge this gap.

Given the importance of human dignity, the Belmont Declaration in support of human subjects in biomedical researches has been developed and consisted of three ethical principles: respect for individual autonomy, beneficence and justice. This study was conducted to adapt these principles with Islamic values and principles.

In this comparative study, the ethical principles in Belmont Declaration are compared with Islamic principles.

From the Islamic view, human dignity and individual autonomy should be respected in biomedical research on human subjects, without regarding human beings as tools for research. The principle of beneficence is a necessary principle and according to the no harm rule, to maximize the benefits of research, the possible burdens and harms should be minimized. Also, in addition to considering the maximum benefits of human subjects, the interests of researchers and those who have fund the research should also be taken into account. Justice and fairness require that while maximizing the benefits of research, its potential risks and harms are minimized and if complications occur, the research on disadvantaged people must be stopped and compensated. Since harm to human is against ethical and Islamic principles, human beings must be protected from the harms of research and individuals such as children, demented people and prisoners must be protected as special groups, because they do not have sufficient capacity or individual autonomy.

The principles mentioned in the Belmont Declaration are essential for biomedical researches on human subjects and are consistent with Islamic values and principles

More than two decades have passed since the establishment of research ethics committees in Iran. With many years of experience of research ethics committees, Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education revised previous regulations and developed “Regulation on the Establishment, Leveling, and Duties of the Biomedical Research Ethics Committees”. Following publish and notification of “Regulation on the Establishment, Leveling, and Duties of the Biomedical Research Ethics Committees” in 2014, research ethics committees formed in national, academic, and organizational levels. In this regard, due to cooperation of the Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education with the Iran Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, “the single article of the Act for Prevention and Combating Fraud in Scientific Publications” was approved in the Parliament of Iran in 2017; its executive bylaw was notified for implementation by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2019 and accordingly research ethics committees found a legal status in Iran. For promotion and update of the mentioned regulation and adaption to the Act, the secretariat of the national ethics committee proposed revised version of the regulation after obtaining opinions of stakeholders and several expert meetings. Then the new regulation entitled “Regulation on the Establishment, Procedures, and Duties of the Research Ethics Committees” was approved by the Iran National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research and the High Council of Medical Ethics of Iran in 2021. Structure of the committees in the new regulation includes “the National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research”, “Regional Research Ethics Committee”, “Institutional Research Ethics Committee”, “Biomedical Research Ethics Committee”, and “Specialized Committee”. This article introduces this new regulation.

Given the rapid growth of science and technology in the field of higher education and the growing spread of knowledge and promoting the quality of science, universities and higher education centers require the development of a culture of moral values among the stakeholders is higher education, especially the health sector. Therefore, this review study was conducted to investigate the place of research ethics in the higher education system. Efforts in the identification and development of ethics in the field of health is the responsibility of higher education institutions. Thus, in the way of research, honesty, integrity and secrecy when reviewing the research results, the accuracy of the good use of funds and instruments, should be considered by researchers. Obtained data were collected based on the articles published in the Google Scholar, Scopus, Sciences Direct, Magiran, SID, PubMed, Irandoc, Iranmedex databases using keywords: ethics, research, research ethics, ethics, higher education, and health. Of 2728 articles, 45 articles related to the subject of research were considered between years 2003-2019. The findings showed that in all scientific researches, observing the principles and scientific process of research is indispensable and indisputable that should be considered by all researchers. Individual features include commitment and secrecy, honesty, perseverance and patience, the spirit of cooperation in teamwork and professional characteristics including community responsibility and supporters, colleagues, subjects as well as data analysis and its release is of interest to researchers. Based on the results of this research Ethics in scholarly research help the researcher to thoroughly review his research process at all stages of his research. In general, it can be said that observing ethics in education and research in health science community requires attention to the necessary infrastructures and quality in research. Therefore, in order to enhance the research culture and adhere to ethical principles, it is recommended to include research ethics as a teaching unit in all higher education institutions and universities. It is also suggested to conduct ethics workshops and seminars on a regular basis in order to institutionalize the culture of research ethics.

With the increasing growth of research in society and the importance and necessity of research and with the development of higher education centers, respect for ethics in research is one of the most important pillars for maintaining and developing science and knowledge. Therefore the purpose of this study presenting the model of the impact of research ethics on the quality of research of faculty members.

In this cross-sectional study, 320 Faculty Members of Macro Universities of Medical Sciences in One Country They were selected by stratified random sampling. Research ethics questionnaire and research quality questionnaire were used for data collection.

The mean and standard deviation of research ethics were (3.538 0 ± 0.751) and research quality (3.626 0 ± 0.821).  Research ethics with standard coefficient (0.814) also affects the quality of research.

 The results of this study showed that research ethics has improved the quality of research of faculty members of macro-medical universities in a region.

Observational studies raise less ethical challenges in comparison to interventional studies. As a result, sometimes, the necessity of Ethical Review of these studies has been neglected. Generally, there are several ethical considerations in each step of observational studies in managerial approach that have been discussed in this paper. These steps include research question, design of study and protocol, collecting information, Inducements, documentation and communication of study results. The most important ethical considerations of information collection are obtaining informed consent from research subjects and maintaining confidentiality which menans that respect for privacy and autonomy of research subjects are very important, especially during the use of health records, interview with sever patients and research on incompetent patients. Investigator can provide a motivation for research subjects, but an inappropriate inducement is not acceptable. Because of these Ethical considerations, each observational study should be reviewed by Research Ethics Committee

One of the main concerns in research is its authenticity. The precise identification of research-related ethical issues can help improve the quality of researches conducted by graduate students and increase their reliability. The nature of some disciplines in different fields, as far as dealing with human beings, their cultural, social, and behavioral occasions can create some research areas in which the researcher needs to observe ethical principles related to these fields. Researchers need to observe ethical principles and values in the various stages of their research. The disciplines of behavioral science, due to their different research nature, require researcher to adhere to some common ethical principles. The present research addresses the various ethical dimensions of behavioral science research.
The present research was conducted in the qualitative approach framework and using analytical content analysis. A semi-structured interview was used to obtain components and indicators of ethics in the research process. The research population consisted of Tehran universities professors of the research methodologies in the behavioral sciences fields. A total of 15 professors were selected using purposive sampling and snowball method. All the participants were informed about time and place of interviews in advance. The duration of each session varied from 20 minutes to more than an hour. Data analysis was performed using deductive content analysis and open categorical source coding method. To ensure the accuracy of the study, the criteria of Guba &Lincoln (1985) were used.
Ethical considerations: Respect for privacy and confidentiality, voluntary participation, awareness of the research purpose, respect for the rights and dignity of individuals were among ethical considerations. Participants’ consent was taken before recording and taking notes and they were assured that the information obtained would be published totally.
Findings: Ethical components in the process of behavioral science research were achieved in the following five stages: ethics in the selection and explanation of the problem (correct identification of the problem; the statement of reality and lack of distortion of facts while selecting the subject; the ability and expertise to perform the research; the importance and necessity of the problem), ethics in data collection (sampling method and validity of research sample; accuracy in data collection), The use of appropriate and standard instruments; non-bias; respect for privacy and confidentiality; respect for participant's rights and informed consent), ethics in the analysis and interpretation of data (authenticity and accuracy of data; honoring the trust, avoiding data fabrication; use of appropriate analytical methods; tolerance and avoid distortion of results); ethics in compiling and publishing results (no distortion of the report; non-copying; considering the rights of all authors; respect for the dignity of the participants in the research; citing credible scientific sources; trusted citations and direct and indirect quotation; supply of research findings in scientific circles) and "paying attention to values and norms of science", which is considered as the competency for doing research. This characteristic may be regarded as the most important characteristic directing the ethical approach to scientific-research ethics. The internalization of the norms and scientific values develops in a biologically scientific process and is related to the spirit of truth and responsibility in how to achieve scientific discoveries. Commitment to science and its norms were expressed in the experiences of one of the professors as follows: "If one is committed to science, he will surely achieve the science and value of science. If anyone achieves the essence of science, he will be considered a committed person and must be fully aware of topics of his discipline by reading relevant articles and researches. To understand theories, one must be aware of the philosophy of science, the history of science, and the circumstances and realities of his own society, and ultimately equip himself with the scientific method ".
Many researches are being designed and carried out and researchers have little knowledge of the ethics of research. Different fields of science, based on the nature of the research methods used, can embody different ethical principles. Considering the importance of the research results in the fields of behavioral sciences, the findings of the present study, which represent the views of the professors of methodology, can lead researchers to genuine and ethical research that contributes significantly to the development of knowledge boundaries. The ethical issues raised by the research process can be a useful guide for students and researchers in the field of behavioral sciences.