Is it appropriate for research ethics committees to make judgements about the scientific quality of research proposals?.

摘要

Research ethics committees (RECs) are there to try to ensure that research is ethically acceptable. Their members do not serve on the basis of any natural or social scientific expertise and these committees' remit specifically excludes judgements of scientific quality. However, this issue is unfortunately more complicated. RECs' remit specifically includes their satisfying themselves that studies have been judged as scientifically sound by people competent to do so, and rightly so: scientifically inadequate research cannot result in valid conclusions and is therefore ethically unacceptable on account of either presenting unsound conclusions as sound and/or wasting participants' and REC members' time.