University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
BMC Med Ethics. 2012 Jun 11;13:12. doi: 10.1186/1472-6939-13-12.
Universities in Cameroon are playing an active part in HIV/AIDS research and much of this research is carried out by students, usually for the purpose of a dissertation/thesis. Student theses/dissertations present research findings in a much more comprehensive manner and have been described as the stepping-stone of a budding scientist's potential in becoming an independent researcher. It is therefore important to verify how students handle issues of research ethics.
Theses/dissertations on HIV/AIDS that described research studies involving the use of human research participants were screened to verify if research ethics approval and informed consent were obtained and documented. The contents of the consent forms were also qualitatively analyzed.
Of 174 theses/dissertations on HIV, ethics approval was documented in 17 (9.77%) and informed consent in 77 (47.83%). Research ethics approval was first mentioned at all in 2002 and highly reported in the year 2007. Evidence of ethics approval was found for the first time in 2005 and informed consent first observed and evidenced in 1997. Ethics approval was mostly reported by students studying for an MD (14.01%) and was not reported in any Bachelors' degree dissertation. Informed consent was also highly reported in MD theses (64.58%) followed by undergraduate theses (31.58%). Voluntary participation and potential benefits of the study were some of the common aspects dealt with in most of the consent forms. The right to discontinue participation in the study and management of residual samples were scarcely ever mentioned.
Overall, and given the current state of the art of research ethics around the world, student-scientists in Cameroon would seem to be merely kidding with research ethics. It is thus essential that training in health research ethics (HRE) be incorporated in the curriculum of universities in Cameroon in order that the next generation of scientists may be better equipped with thorough knowledge and practice of HRE. This, we believe, would be one way of fighting the occurrence of research scandals, which have not yet abated significantly, especially those arising from negligence or inexcusable ignorance.
喀麦隆的大学在艾滋病毒/艾滋病研究中发挥了积极作用，其中许多研究是由学生进行的，通常是为了完成论文。学生论文以更全面的方式呈现研究结果，被描述为有前途的科学家成为独立研究人员的垫脚石。因此，验证学生如何处理研究伦理问题非常重要。
筛选了涉及使用人类研究参与者的艾滋病毒研究论文，以验证是否获得并记录了研究伦理批准和知情同意。还对同意书的内容进行了定性分析。
在 174 篇关于艾滋病毒的论文中，有 17 篇（9.77%）记录了伦理批准，77 篇（47.83%）记录了知情同意。伦理批准首次在 2002 年被提及，在 2007 年得到了高度报道。伦理批准的证据首次出现在 2005 年，知情同意首次在 1997 年被观察到并记录。伦理批准主要由攻读医学博士学位的学生报告（14.01%），在任何学士学位论文中都没有报告。知情同意也在医学博士论文中得到了高度报道（64.58%），其次是本科生论文（31.58%）。自愿参与和研究的潜在利益是大多数同意书中涉及的常见方面。很少提到退出研究的权利和剩余样本的管理。
总体而言，考虑到全球目前的研究伦理状况，喀麦隆的学生科学家似乎只是在研究伦理上开玩笑。因此，在喀麦隆的大学课程中纳入健康研究伦理（HRE）培训至关重要，以便下一代科学家能够更好地掌握 HRE 的全面知识和实践。我们相信，这是应对研究丑闻的一种方法，这些丑闻尚未得到显著缓解，尤其是那些由于疏忽或不可原谅的无知而引起的丑闻。
