Researchers’ Experiences of Obtaining Informed Consent to Participate in Human Research and Its Facilitating Factors: A Qualitative Study

Considering the lack of information about the ethical principles required to obtain informed consent, this issue should be given more attention by researchers. This study aims to extract the rich experiences of researchers regarding obtaining informed consent to participate in human research and its facilitating factors.
This qualitative study was conducted with the content analysis approach in 2023. Using targeted sampling, 17 researchers from the Qom University of Medical Sciences were selected, and quasi-structured and individual interviews were conducted until data saturation. Data were analyzed simultaneously with data collection using the Granheim and Lundman method.
According to the results of this study, based on the nature of the study, researchers can use any of the written, oral, or electronic methods to obtain informed consent. The researchers believed that the principles of obtaining informed consent include voluntariness, avoiding coercion, the existence of two-way interaction between the researcher and the research samples, and providing necessary information to the research samples. According to researchers’ experiences, the factors that facilitate obtaining informed consent include establishing effective communication with researchers and samples, the appropriateness of the text of the informed consent, preparing a multimedia file of the informed consent, holding training courses, and having clear and up-to-date instructions.
The principles of obtaining informed consent and the facilitating factors mentioned in this research can help researchers observe this critical aspect of ethics in research.