CBS researchers get a new ethics council
(Illustration: Emil Friis Ernst)
More scientific journals and external foundations are demanding that research papers and applications are submitted with an official ‘ethics committee’ stamp of approval. This demand and inquiries from CBS researchers have prompted CBS to establish a new Ethics Council.
News | 07. Feb 2020
Applying for external funding for research and submitting scientific papers to journals are crucial elements of any researcher’s job description.
Often these tasks come with a list of requirements. In some fields, researchers must argue why their particular project is relevant before qualifying for potential funding. And when papers are submitted, often journals require that the materials and methods sections provide sufficient detail for the studies to be replicated.
Now, a new demand has been added to the list – a quality stamp from a university-based ethics committee. Such a stamp is to ensure that the content of papers and applications has been ethically approved.
Based on the rise in demand and CBS researchers’ inquiries about the new demand, Søren Hvidkjær, the Dean of Research at CBS, in collaboration with the Academic Council, has established the CBS Ethics Council, which is expected to begin functioning this spring.
“The council, which will consist of four members, is intended to help researchers who need a quality stamp for either a paper or an application. It’s not a board to which one can file complaints or a place where researchers can ask ethical questions related to good research practice. We have the Practice Committee and the so-called ‘Named Person’ scheme for such cases,” he says.
Within fields such as psychology, ethics councils are regularly called upon to scrutinize and approve experiments involving humans. And although CBS has relatively few experiments of this kind, the Academic Council has decided that the ethics council will be a useful addition at CBS.
“I don’t expect that there will be a great many inquiries, but it’s possible that more and more journals and foundations will require this stamp in the future,” says Søren Hvidkjær, and explains that the council will meet in response to specific inquiries from researchers.
CBS is currently creating a page for the intranet Share where researchers can read more about the Ethics Council and how to contact its members. You can read more about it right here: https://cbsshare.cbs.dk/vipservices/departments/Pages/Midlertidigt-navn.aspx
Comments