Research Integrity and Research Ethics in Professional Codes of Ethics: Survey of Terminology Used by Professional Organizations across Research Disciplines.

Professional codes of ethics are social contracts among members of a professional group, which aim to instigate, encourage and nurture ethical behaviour and prevent professional misconduct, including research and publication. Despite the existence of codes of ethics, research misconduct remains a serious problem. A survey of codes of ethics from 795 professional organizations from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Codes of Ethics Collection showed that 182 of them (23%) used research integrity and research ethics terminology in their codes, with differences across disciplines: while the terminology was common in professional organizations in social sciences (82%), mental health (71%), sciences (61%), other organizations had no statements (construction trades, fraternal social organizations, real estate) or a few of them (management, media, engineering). A subsample of 158 professional organizations we judged to be directly involved in research significantly more often had statements on research integrity/ethics terminology than the whole sample: an average of 10.4% of organizations with a statement (95% CI = 10.4-23-5%) on any of the 27 research integrity/ethics terms compared to 3.3% (95% CI = 2.1-4.6%), respectively (P<0.001). Overall, 62% of all statements addressing research integrity/ethics concepts used prescriptive language in describing the standard of practice. Professional organizations should define research integrity and research ethics issues in their ethics codes and collaborate within and across disciplines to adequately address responsible conduct of research and meet contemporary needs of their communities.

Factors in traditional families which affect health and health care: a qualitative study.

One of the most powerful influences on the patient is the family and its characteristics. In the recent decades families have changed, one of the most well known changes was a shift from extended to nuclear families. The consequences of this shift on health have been poorly researched, although family factors are being taught at medical schools. The aim of this study is to explore differences and similarities in factors between nuclear and extended families which may affect health and health care of family members. We conducted the qualitative study of family reports. The reports were done by students of family medicine. We examined the reports according to fourtheme: (1) Relations between the members of the family and between them and society, (2) Lifestyle, (3) Use of medical services and confidence in doctors and medicine, (4) Ilnesses and attitude towards illnesses. Differences were found in relations between the closest members of the family, close family interactions, domination issues and family roles, attitudes towards independence, parents and children, interaction with other people, attitude towards medicine, taking care of the sick member of the family and the way families endure illnesses. A quantitative research is needed to verify all the differences which we came across in this study. The qualitative data support the importance of family on health.