Newson Ainsley J, Lipworth Wendy
Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, Level 1, Medical Foundation Building K25, 92-4 Parramatta Road, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Health Promot J Austr. 2015 Dec;26(3):170-175. doi: 10.1071/HE15034.
Most academic journals that publish studies involving human participants require evidence that the research has been approved by a human research ethics committee (HREC). Yet journals continue to receive submissions from authors who have failed to obtain such approval. In this paper, we provide an ethical justification of why journals should not, in general, publish articles describing research that has no ethics approval, with particular attention to the health promotion context.
Using theoretical bioethical reasoning and drawing on a case study, we first rebut some potential criticisms of the need for research ethics approval. We then outline four positive claims to justify a presumption that research should, in most instances, be published only if it has been undertaken with HREC approval.
We present four justifications for requiring ethics approval before publication: (1) HREC approval adds legitimacy to the research; (2) the process of obtaining HREC approval can improve the quality of an intervention being investigated; (3) obtaining HREC approval can help mitigate harm; and (4) obtaining HREC approval demonstrates respect for persons.
This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive assessment of why research ethics approval should generally be obtained before publishing in the health promotion context. So what? Journals such as the Health Promotion Journal of Australia have recently begun to require research ethics approval for publishing research. Health promotion researchers will be interested in learning the ethical justification for this change.
大多数发表涉及人类参与者研究的学术期刊都要求有证据表明该研究已获得人类研究伦理委员会（HREC）的批准。然而，期刊仍不断收到未获得此类批准的作者的投稿。在本文中，我们从伦理角度阐述了为何期刊通常不应发表描述未经伦理批准的研究的文章，尤其关注健康促进背景下的情况。
运用理论生物伦理学推理并借鉴一个案例研究，我们首先反驳了一些对研究伦理批准必要性的潜在批评。然后概述了四个积极的主张，以证明在大多数情况下，研究只有在获得HREC批准后才应发表这一推定的合理性。
我们提出了在发表前要求伦理批准的四个理由：（1）HREC批准增加了研究的合法性；（２）获得HREC批准的过程可以提高所研究干预措施的质量；（３）获得HREC批准有助于减轻危害；（４）获得HREC批准体现了对人的尊重。
本文对为何在健康促进背景下发表研究通常应先获得研究伦理批准进行了系统而全面的评估。那又如何呢？诸如《澳大利亚健康促进杂志》等期刊最近已开始要求发表研究需获得研究伦理批准。健康促进研究人员会有兴趣了解这一变化的伦理依据。
