Sociology Research Seminar
'Trust me, I'm a researcher': Human research ethics in practice
Marilys Guillemin and Lynn Gillam
Centre for Health and Society, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
Abstract
It is widely agreed that conducting research in an ethical manner is important and that trust in the research process is crucial. However, there is little research that has systematically investigated what happens in the practice of research ethics. This research is part of a three year project (2006-2008) examining how human research ethics committee members and health researchers make decisions about ethical issues in health research. Eighty-eight individual, in-depth interviews have been undertaken: 34 ethics committee members across all categories of membership, and 54 health researchers in fields including biomedicine, epidemiology, clinical and social health research. The research has examined how health researchers and ethics committee members understand and think about research ethics and how, in practice, they address ethical issues in research. In this presentation we will discuss the cultures and practices of ethics committee members engaged in the process of ethics review. We will examine the relationship between ethics committee members and health researchers, and the ways that these relationships can both assist and impede trust in the human research enterprise. We will present the ways that health researchers, in particular health researchers using social science approaches, understand and practice research ethics. For this group of health researchers, research ethics is not separate or distinct to their practice of doing research; ethics is embedded in their research practice, from the early stages of research design, to their relationships with their participants, through to the dissemination of findings. We will discuss these findings in context of establishing and ensuring trust in the process of human research.
Marilys Guillemin is the Deputy Director and Associate Professor at the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne. Her professional academic experience is in sociology of health and illness, particularly in the areas of understandings of illness, health and technology studies, and women's health. Marilys is an established health researcher whose past major research projects include the management of menopause within specialised clinic settings examining the needs and practices of both women and medical practitioners; research on mid-age women and heart disease particularly focusing on women's understanding of risk and prevention of heart disease; and research on deafness and genetic testing. At postgraduate level, Marilys and Lynn teach subjects in qualitative research design and research methods, social health and health ethics. Lynn and Marilys have been honoured with a number of teaching awards for their team teaching, including the national Carrick award for teaching excellence in 2007.
Lynn Gillam holds appointments as Associate Professor in Health Ethics at the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and is also the Clinical Ethicist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. Lynn’s background is in philosophy, theology and bioethics. She teaches ethics in the medical curriculum and the postgraduate social health program. Her research interests include pre-natal diagnosis, genetic testing, and clinical ethics. She also has a strong interest in the intersections between ethics and sociology, and the development of inter-disciplinary qualitative methods suitable for research in ethics. Lynn has 15 years experience on human research ethics committees. She is currently a member of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Melbourne, and the clinical ethics committee of the Royal Children’s Hospital. Lynn has published widely in bioethics, on a range of issues, including clinical ethics, research ethics and ethics committees, the use of human foetal tissue, reproductive technologies and genetic testing.
How to get there: Monash University Law Chambers, 472 Bourke Street, Melbourne:http://www.law.monash.edu.au/chambers-layout.html
Please RSVP to Dr Mark Davis
Future Sociology Research Seminar dates for your diary:
26 June:
Professor Lenore Manderson, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University: ' Nerve: the sociology of the body and filming the self'
24 July:
Professor Corinne Squire, Centre for Narrative Research, School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, University of East London: 'Genres of HIV talk'
17 September:
Dr Jane Maree Maher, Dr Jo Lindsay and Associate Professor Anne Bardoel, (Monash University) ' New configurations: Nurses and builders managing work and care'