Ethical challenges in the COVID-19 research context: a toolkit for supporting analysis and resolution

Abstract

ABSTRACTCOVID-19 is compromising all aspects of society, with devastating impacts on health, political, social, economic and educational spheres. A premium is being placed on scientific research as the source of possible solutions, with a situational imperative to carry out investigations at an accelerated rate. There is a major challenge not to neglect ethical standards, in a context where doing so may mean the difference between life and death. In this paper we offer a rubric for considering the ethical challenges in COVID-19 related research, in the form of an ethics toolkit for global research developed at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with more than 200 global researchers from around the world. This toolkit provides a framework to support confrontation of ethical conflicts through the integrated and iterative analysis of Place, People, Principles and Precedents, throughout the research journey. Two case analyses are offered to exemplify the utility of the toolkit as a flexible and dynamic tool to promote ethical research in the context of COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• research
• ethics
• integrity

Disclosure Statement

Authors have no known conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The University of Edinburgh CAHSS GCRF Internal Fund. Project Title: Leadership in Ethics, Integrity and Research Conduct in Complex LMIC-UK partnership projects.