This blog summarises a set of discussions on vulnerability, agency and resilience in a meeting organised by REACH it is framed around the paradox that: on the one hand research can be powerful tool for social justice in ensuring that interventions are evidence based; but on the other, there is need to protect ‘the vulnerable’ […]
The practice of community based participatory research (CBPR) has evolved over the past 20 years with the recognition that health equity is best achieved when academic researchers form collaborative partnerships with communities. This article theorizes the possibility that core principles of CBPR cannot be realistically applied unless unequal power relations are identified and addressed. It […]
Sharing individual-level data from clinical and public health research is increasingly being seen as a core requirement for effective and efficient biomedical research. This article discusses the results of a systematic review and multisite qualitative study of key stakeholders’ perspectives on best practices in ethical data sharing in low- and middle-income settings. Our research suggests […]
There is a growing literature documenting the complex realities of consent processes in the field, and the negotiations and ethical dilemmas involved. Much has also been written about how gender and power shape household decision-making processes. However, these bodies of literature have rarely been brought together to inform research theory and practice in low-income settings. […]
This editorial identifies three areas of ethical tension in health systems research: 1) the dominance of global targets in priority setting which may crowd out health systems research that is responsive to local needs in favour of research on service delivery and scale up of interventions geared to support the achievement of global goals like […]
Wassenaar D. and Rattani A. (2016) What Makes Health Systems Research in Developing Countries Ethical? Application of the Emanuel Framework for Clinical Research to Health Systems Research, Developing World Bioethics, Volume 16, Issue 3December 2016, Pages 133–13 The growing importance of health systems research has opened debate about appropriate ethical frameworks and guidelines for the ethical […]
Close relationships between researchers and participants engaged in a feminist participatory action research project have brought joy and insight, but also challenges. Through the project we collaborate to enhance participants’ careers and, among some, develop feminist consciousness. In this paper we discuss methodological and ethical issues that derive from the closeness of the relationships between […]
Carrying out research on the mechanisms and treatments of disease in sub-Saharan Africa is often conducted in the most traditional and patriarchal communities. These social structures complicate such processes as gaining consent and giving participants feedback on the findings. But researchers have begun to learn an important lesson: by making an effort to better understand […]
An increasing volume of qualitative research and articles about qualitative methods has been published recently in medical journals. However, compared with the extensive debate in social sciences literature, there has been little consideration in medical journals of the ethical issues surrounding qualitative research. A possible explanation for this lack of discussion is that it is […]
The movement for research transparency has gained irresistible momentum over the past decade. Although qualitative research is rarely published in the high-impact journals that have adopted, or are most likely to adopt, data sharing policies, qualitative researchers who publish work in these and similar venues will likely encounter questions about data sharing within the next […]