Designing and Introducing a Normative Framework for the Development of Research Ethics Codes: A Case Study on the Research Ethics Codes of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran

Abstract

The charter of research ethics is a set of ethical codes and guidelines that outline the ethical limits of research components. The main function of these ethical charters and guidelines is to help students, professors, researchers, and research ethics boards for the ethical realization of research projects and activities, as well as helping the process of evaluating and making appropriate ethical choices with actual and potential ethical challenges in all stages of research. The main issue of this research plan is how to compile and develop ethics charters in research. Therefore, firstly, the nature and function of ethics charters in research were examined, and then, by collecting 36 criteria, a normative framework for the compilation and development of research ethics charters was proposed and presented. These criteria deal with the development and implementation of ethics charters in research from the three perspectives of design and compilation (with 20 criteria), implementation and monitoring (with 9 criteria), and education and promotion (with 7 criteria). In the end, in accordance with this framework of norms and 36 criteria, from the three perspectives mentioned, the "Research Ethics Codes of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran" was criticized and examined. This research has been realized in two steps: in the first step, through the library method, the nature and function of research charters and codes of ethics were investigated, as well as the study of numerous sources and references to identify effective criteria in the compilation and development of research ethics charters. Then, a normative framework was proposed for compiling and developing ethics charters in research. This framework was surveyed, validated and finalized by a focus group of experts in this field. In the second step, the "Research Ethics Codes of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran", as the only official research ethics charter whose implementation has been notified to the universities and research institutes of that ministry, were criticized and examined in accordance with the criteria and normative framework obtained in the first step. Based on this, the final achievements of this research plan are: 1) introduction and proposal of a normative framework for compiling ethics codes in research, and 2) critical evaluation and review of the "Research Ethics Codes" and suggestions for form and content revision in the compilation and development it.

Keywords

• charter of research ethics
• code of ethics
• normative framework
• research ethics