Mamotte Nicole, Wassenaar Douglas
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermartzburg, South Africa.
J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics. 2009 Dec;4(4):69-78. doi: 10.1525/jer.2009.4.4.69.
We report the findings of a preliminary study of social science researchers' experiences of ethics review from a developing country perspective. Social science researchers' experiences of ethics review were coded as negative (42.6%), positive (21.3%), or mixed (36.2%). Ethics review was primarily experienced as negative for pragmatic reasons such as slow turnaround time, inadequate review and problems with the centralization of review. Our finding that South African researchers experience the same problems and frustrations with RECs as developed country researchers affirms that South Africa's problems with ethics review are not due to it being a less developed system, but to general review practices as they arise naturally in institutions. Developing countries thus have a unique opportunity to learn from the reported dissatisfactions and mistakes of developed countries, to avoid procedures that have hindered ethics review of much social science research in developed countries, and to fashion their own review procedures in ways that are more appropriate to key ethical issues arising in social science research and local conditions and resources.
我们从发展中国家的视角报告了一项关于社会科学研究人员伦理审查经历的初步研究结果。社会科学研究人员的伦理审查经历被编码为负面（42.6%）、正面（21.3%）或混合（36.2%）。由于诸如周转时间长、审查不足以及审查集中化问题等实际原因，伦理审查主要被体验为负面的。我们的研究发现，南非研究人员与发达国家研究人员在伦理审查委员会方面面临相同的问题和挫折，这证实了南非伦理审查问题并非源于其制度不够发达，而是源于机构中自然出现的一般审查做法。因此，发展中国家有独特的机会从发达国家报告的不满和错误中吸取教训，避免那些阻碍了发达国家许多社会科学研究伦理审查的程序，并以更适合社会科学研究中出现的关键伦理问题以及当地条件和资源的方式制定自己的审查程序。
