Attitude of researchers towards ethics committee at a medical research institute in Coimbatore: a cross sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background: The role of ethics committees has been well defined, but many researchers regard ethical review as a road block to research.Methods: To assess the attitude of the researchers towards the ethics committee, a cross sectional study was conducted among 80 researchers, which includes both faculty and undergraduate students at a medical research institute.Results: Our study shows that though most of the researchers agreed that ethics committee is mandatory, they felt that ethics committee review delays research projects, undermined the role of non-medical members in the committee, felt annoyed about the documentation and answering the full board queries and presentations.Conclusions: Study concludes that though the researchers have understood the critical role of ethics committee, they lack a positive attitude when it comes to the ethics committee functioning. Therefore, training should be conducted for researchers, which addresses these issues, so that the misunderstandings and conflicts are minimized.