ABSTRACT
In Canada, institutions that receive research funding from the three federal granting agencies must establish research ethics boards (REBs) to review the ethical acceptability of research involving humans. Institutions are also expected to promote the responsible conduct of research, fostering researchers’ abilities to act with integrity in the conduct of their research. Where a researcher fails to act with integrity in research with humans, institutional policies and procedures of the U15, Canada’s most research-intensive universities, vary in the extent to which they involve their REBs in response to such breaches. Some make no mention of the REB, whereas others state that their REB should be provided with information relating to upheld allegations. In this paper, we argue that when allegations of research integrity breaches are corroborated, the institution’s REB should be identified as a party required to receive that information. Only then can REBs ensure compliance with research ethics standards, which is essential to maintain the public’s trust.
Acknowledgments
The authors with to thank Dr. Michael C. King for his review and comments on early versions of this manuscript and Ms. Catherine Paquetfor her help with policy identification.
Authors’ contributions
SAP and MAS contributed to writing the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript
Availability of data and material
Not applicable
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable, no human participants