ETHICS. An inventory of research ethics in educational programs at all levels in Sahlgrenska Academy and the launch of a new series of seminars in May. These are some of the initiatives the Research Ethics Committee is working on. Now its mission is being expanded to also include research with animal experiments.
The Research Ethics Committee supports Faculty Management and also bodies and committees within Sahlgrenska Academy. The committee was established last year to increase awareness of research ethics and to contribute to the high quality and competitiveness of all activities at Sahlgrenska Academy.
Highlighting research ethics
Björn Rydevik, who chairs the committee, points out that the committee neither discusses concrete cases of misconduct nor assesses the research ethics of individual projects.
“We are seeing very rapid development in many fields of research, and new knowledge and new technologies provide opportunities that we could not have anticipated earlier. We want to ensure that research ethics are taken into consideration within everything Sahlgrenska Academy does and that awareness of ethical principles in research increases,” says Rydevik.
Seminar premiere May 14
To stimulate discussion and promote an ethical approach, the committee has initiated a new faculty-wide seminar series in which research ethics will be discussed from different perspectives. The first seminar deals with publishing ethics and co-authorship, and the featured speaker is Stefan Eriksson, associate professor of research ethics at Uppsala University, whose research includes looking at misconduct in research and publication ethics.
“Being a co-author is both an honor and potentially disgrace if problems with the work arise,” says Sven Wallerstedt, a long-time member of the regional Ethical Review Board who now serves as vice chair of the Research Ethics Committee. “We think it is good to have an expert from another institution of higher education to explain the problem of co-authorship. It is a highly relevant issue that many on the teaching staff probably will have opinions about.”
Anna Karlsson-Bengtsson, a member of the committee who represents the Council for Third-cycle Studies (FUR), feels that young researchers are unsure about publishing ethics. “We lean toward the accepted Vancouver rules for authorship, but there is still a difference between practices and regulations. We need to have an open discussion about this.”
Ralph Peeker also believes that co-authorship will generate discussion at the seminar and that the seminar series needs to return to the subject of publication ethics. “With the increasing demands for open access, the number of publications known as ‘predatory journals’ also increases. Researchers need to publish, of course, and it may not be easy to distinguish reputable journals, with rigorous peer review and indexing, from disreputable publications that are careless with important processes so they can bring in as much money as possible.”
The seminar series has been named Research Ethics in Academia – Open Faculty Meeting. The first session, which will focus on publishing ethics and co-authorship, meets on Tuesday, May 14, 12:00–13:00, in the Birgit Thilander assembly room in Academicum at Medicinareberget. You do not need to register in advance, and lunch sandwiches are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Ethical research on humans and animals
When the Research Ethics Committee was established just over a year ago, its mandate included only research on humans, but in the autumn the thought occurred to both Faculty Management and the committee itself that the assignment should be expanded from human ethics to include research based on animal experiments.
“Modern medical research is translational, with human, biomedical and experimental methods coming together in efforts to seek answers to clinical questions,” says Björn Rydevik. “That underscores the need for the Research Ethics Committee to have the necessary expertise to discuss the ethical aspects of both human research and research with animal experiments.”
Increase knowledge
The commitment of its members is obvious when I meet with the committee in connection with one of its meetings. One of the members, Elisabet Holm, is completely new. She focuses in particular on ethical issues in animal research.
“There are many factual errors in discussions about animal experiments which can be heard in society at large. Universities and researchers have a responsibility to raise awareness of why they conduct animal experiments so that they counteract political decisions being made solely on emotional grounds. That is extremely important,” says Elisabet Holm, who also is careful to point out that the committee will not be involved with the ethical review of individual projects in animal research.
Anna Karlsson-Bengtsson agrees that universities should initiate more discussion about animal experiments. “Societal discussions govern the prevailing norms. I believe that the changes in norms are more apparent in animal ethics than in many other areas, and universities can play a more active role in this regard. The academy should engage in discussions about the 3Rs and how animal experiments can be reduced and also should increase awareness of which research needs to be based on animal experiments.”
The 3R principle (Replace, Reduce, Refine) refers to the need for all who work with animals in research to reduce the number of animals used.
Ethics clearly focused on
In recent years several cases of research misconduct have attracted attention in Sweden, with the Macchiarini scandal at the forefront. But it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good, says Ralph Peeker. “The magnificent faux pas that we have seen in our country has served as an eye-opener for people who otherwise would not have been as interested in ethical issues.”
Members of the committee agree that there is a great interest in those research ethical issues within Sahlgrenska Academy. Per-Anders Jansson, who represents Sahlgrenska University Hospital, maintains that the new legislation regarding the processing of personal data has brought some good with it.
“The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means we really have to think about how we are going to process personal data in research and how we should approach these tasks. GDPR has also increased awareness and forced researchers to think more about ethics.”
National ethics education
The discussion of ethical issues in research is also taking place at the national level, where Björn Rydevik is Sahlgrenska Academy’s representative in the network of medical faculties in Sweden. This collaboration will result soon in new online educational materials about ethical approaches and the regulatory framework for medical research in Sweden that primarily appeals to incoming postdoctoral researchers and visiting research fellows. These online educational materials will probably be available in the autumn.
TEXT AND PHOTO: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
