Research Ethics Essay 2022

RESEARCH ETHICS.
By Ayodeji Odunsi

Reading Summary
This essay is a reflection from a personal perspective on the comparative
research undertaken by Gallagher et al. (2016) on the key concepts of
national ethical guidelines, institutional review boards, and the ethical
attitudes and behaviour towards research stakeholders. The aims of the
research was fulfilled by the author through describing and analysing the
similarities and discrepancies in “national human research ethics” or
NHREs seen in studying the mental health of children who had a parent
imprisoned in the countries of Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and
Romania. There were two distinct methods used – questionnaire surveys
and interviews, and the participants used ranged from practitioners of law
and policy makers to the general public, both adults and children. The
data collection was done in three phases, the first had two linked
seminars, the second involved a discussion where consortium members
informed whether there were ethical issues encountered when departing
from The Ethical Protocol drafted, and the third being the questionnaire
survey. The main focus of the study was the researchers’ ethical attitudes
and behaviour in relation to participant ethical procedures (Gallagher et al
2016).
Insights
The first thing that struck me right at the onset was the ethical
underpinnings of the research objective where imprisoned parents of
children were involved. The report focused its attention on identifying the
differences between the National Ethical Guidelines (NEG) and the