Developing world bioethics
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Scientific researchers are expected to follow the professional norms in their own domain. With a growing number of scientific publications retracted and research misconduct cases revealed in recent years, Chinese biomedical research integrity is questioned. As institutions educating and training future researchers, universities and the guidance they provide are important for the research quality and integrity of the country. Therefore, through a review of the guidance and policy documents on research integrity in Chinese universities, this work aims to investigate how the professional norms are specified in these documents. ⋯ Despite the discrepancy they have, all these documents were designed to promote research integrity and cultivate a good research environment in Chinese biomedical domain. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement, for example, through more consultation of international guidance.
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The way people at the receiving end of humanitarian assistance perceive this intervention may provide invaluable bottom-up feedback to improve the quality of the intervention. We analyzed and mapped Haitians' views regarding international humanitarian aid in cases of natural disaster. ⋯ Through cluster analysis, five qualitatively different positions were found: (a) Complete hostility to any kind of humanitarian aid (6%); (b) Strong hostility to humanitarian aid in the case of disrespectful attitudes or behaviors (4%); (c) Technical competence is the only factor that matters (25%); (d) Both manifestation of respect for the population and technical competence matter (38%) and (e) Undetermined (27%). Most Haitians expect humanitarian teams to be technically competent, but even very competent aid is not considered adequate if provided in an arrogant and disrespectful manner.
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To explore academia perceptions and experience with unethical authorship practices in their respective institutions. ⋯ It was suggested that the institution must play a proactive role in educating and promoting awareness on authorship guidelines, through education and training, ethical leadership as well as promoting the importance of publication ethics.
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The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium is a conglomeration of research and infrastructure projects spread throughout Africa whose aim is to apply genomic methodology to diseases affecting the people in the region. Its operation is innovative in the sense that it is doing something new; that is, filling a hitherto existing void in genomic research capability of African scientists and infusing resources and manpower to institutions and investigators across Africa. ⋯ Specifically, the paper discusses protection of research participants as envisaged by H3Africa in the area of consent, safeguarding privacy, maintaining confidentiality of health information and sharing of data/biospecimens. The ultimate goal is to determine whether H3Africa initiatives and processes are consistent or at odds with international guidelines and best practices.