What is it about?
Conducting research during or in the aftermath of disasters poses many specific practical and ethical challenges. This is particularly the case with research involving human subjects. The extraordinary circumstances of research conducted in disaster settings require appropriate regulations to ensure the protection of human participants. The goal of this study is to review the existing ethical guidelines for disaster research.
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Why is it important?
We found some gaps in the studied research ethics guidelines, where further work is certainly needed. Emerging guidelines for disaster settings should include practical suggestions regarding how to weigh conflicting principles, or references to such sources, which could support researchers in their work. Given the tension noted above between generalized and specific approaches to guidance, such practical decision-making tools will be essential. The evidence base of the studied guidelines is rather weak and diverse. Most guidelines were based on some personal experiences, unique situations, or NGO practices. Empirical evidence is urgently needed to support the statements and requirements included in research ethics guidelines.
Perspectives
I hope that this article will be helpful for those researchers, NGOs and research subjects organizing and participating in research in disaster settings. We tried to show what are the gaps in research ethic guidelines for disaster settings and how to improve application of research ethics principles in such situations.
Dr Signe Mezinska
University of Latvia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Research in disaster settings: a systematic qualitative review of ethical guidelines, BMC Medical Ethics, October 2016, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/s12910-016-0148-7.
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