Applying Ethical Guidelines in Clinical Researches among Academic Medical Staff: An Experience from South Egypt

Background: There is an increased need to conduct medical research in developing countries. Meanwhile, research ethics is needed to achieve the balance between advancement in science and protection of human subjects’ rights.
Our aim was to assess the knowledge and attitude of researchers in the Faculty of Medicine, Beni Suef University, towards applying ethical guidelines in medical research.
Methodology: This was a descriptive analytical cross sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire.
Results: Around 90% of the study subjects reported previous exposure to bioethics. Only 57.7% of respondents agreed to participate in the study. More than two thirds (67.8%) of participating researchers explained possible risks & potential benefits of their research to the participants. Less than a quarter (22.3%) had published their articles in international publications and among them, only 31% were asked to submit ethical approval. Only 10% of researchers had submitted their research to the Research Ethical Committee (REC) for ethical review.
More than half of investigators did not agree on the role of REC in the protection of human subjects (58.5%).
Only 14.6% (19/130) and 14.7% (11/75) had an acceptable level of knowledge regarding the different codes of ethics and items of the consent form respectively.
Conclusion: The knowledge of our researchers about research ethics was remarkably low and more emphasis on research ethics training is urgently needed.