Ethics and Governance

This course places informed consent within its historical context and outlines the regulations, guidelines and processes which arose from this background. The primary aims of informed consent are to protect the research participant from misinformation, exploitation and coercion. This course offers an introduction to the processes and wider factors which need to be taken into consideration when involving participants in clinical research. The course is aimed at everyone involved in clinical research.

Upon completion of the course you will have gained an understanding of:

1. The events that lead to the development of universal research ethics
2. Why informed consent is necessary and the guidelines that brought it about
3. What is involved in taking informed consent from a potential study participant and the information they should be provided with
4. Who is, and is not, eligible to sign a consent form
5. Language that should not be used when asking an individual to enrol in a study
6. The options that are available for non-paper based communities
7. Points to be taken into account when taking consent

A RACI matrix assigns clear roles for each team member for the duration of a project. Every member of the project team is assigned a clear role and expectations.

Each role is categorized as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed, ensuring that everyone understands their role in a project’s success. By assigning these roles, project managers prevent confusion and overlapping duties while increasing accountability.

The RACI framework is especially beneficial for complex projects where clear role distribution is essential for smooth workflows and improved communication.

This guide is designed to help you better understand the misformation world. It covers the basics of misinformation and explores the potential consequences of misinformation. Plus it offers practical steps you can take to counter misinformation. It also provides information, games, and further resources to support your ability to engage thoughtfully and critically with today’s information landscape.

Tech is a massive part of being a researcher. It connects to many aspects of being an active learner and explorer of knowledge. Generative AI (genAI) is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning algorithms to produce or remix content. This content output can be text, imagery, audio, code or other formats. GenAI tools can be used in many ways in your study or research – to synthesise, create, refine, test, inspire or modify.

This guide provides information about using genAI tools in an ethical, creative and evaluative way. The four main areas covered are: types of generative AI, ethical and evaluative use, how to use and explore, AI research and news.

This interactive session explores ethical issues around AI technologies in healthcare settings, focussing particularly on generative AI tools like large language models. We will discuss what evidence is relevant for those who will be using the tools and what you need to know to make ethical decisions about when and how to use AI (or not!). We will cover ethical issues such as responsibility, accountability, human-computer interaction, fairness and bias, and transparency.

Dr. Melissa McCradden is the Artificial Intelligence Director and Deputy Research Director with the Women’s and Children’s Health Network, and a Deputy Director and The Hospital Research Foundation (THRF) Group Fellow at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide. She is an Adjunct Scientist with the SickKids Research Institute and member of the SickKids Research Ethics Board in Toronto, Canada. Dr McCradden serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Research Ethics and on the Advisory Board for the journal Patterns. She is a member of the World Health Organization’s Working Group on Clinical Evaluation of AI and participates on several reporting guideline initiatives promoting transparent reporting of AI studies in health settings.

Explore this series tailored specifically to assist early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in research design and governance in order to generate research findings that lead to improved health care and informed health service reform.

Webinars are conducted by experts from the University of Melbourne’s Methods and Implementation Support for Clinical and Health research Hub (MISCH) team with additional guest presenters.

This seminar focuses on the general principles and responsibilities related to research governance and provides practical tips for preparation of governance applications. Covers recent changes to national governance frameworks (2022).

Ethics in research is often perceived as a bureaucratic hurdle to be struggled over. This seminar will instead cover how to embrace ethics as a powerful tool that can ensure research is relevant and will meet its end point. This seminar will empower researchers to fulfill their obligations more easily, ensuring public trust in their work.

Western Alliance discuss the difference between quality assurance and research, lists triggers for consideration of ethical review, levels of ethics oversight, preparing and submitting an ethics application, key contacts in the Western region, codes and policies for research ethics.

This free educational resource examines the particular ethical issues raised by social science and humanities research. The training module is divided into 6 basic parts. You can start and stop reading at any point in the module, and you can close it and return to it later. After you have reviewed the entire module, there is a quiz that tests your comprehension of the material.

The aim of this decision tool is to assist in navigating through the jurisdictional and organisational differing processes for the submission of a Human Research Ethics Application (HREA). It will assist in the understanding of National Mutual Acceptance (NMA) and forming a submission strategy. It does not inform on individual organisation’s ethics review process and submission dates.

The Guidelines Framework shows how all of the relevant research guidelines in Australia are linked and provide the framework for how researchers and participants should be working together on research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities. Adherence to these guidelines will be a requirement of the NHMRC funding agreement.

The AIATSIS Code respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values and worldviews, acknowledging the wisdom and diversity of Indigenous knowledge systems. When announcing the review of the AIATSIS guidelines, then AIATSIS Council Chair, Professor Michael McDaniel, said that engaging ethically means many things but ultimately it is about respect and honour.

Comprehensive introduction to ethics in research, with step by step instructions, examples and templates.

The potential applications of LLMs in health care education, research, and practice could be promising if the associated valid concerns are proactively examined and addressed. The current systematic review aimed to investigate the utility of ChatGPT in health care education, research, and practice and to highlight its potential limitations.

Highlights in this article about the ethics of using AI in research include the 3 points: 1. LLMs like ChatGPT will become progressively more present in the scientific field. 2. The use of ChatGPT has many implications in terms of use and misuse. 3. The scientific field should discuss how to best integrate this emerging technology.

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) is a form of artificial intelligence where computer programs use sets of data and information to create new content based on data patterns, context, probability and human feedback. Gen-AI can produce text (ChatGPT, etc.), images (DALL-E, Midjourney, etc. ), summarise research (Elicit) and more. This site explores how to use Gen-AI; what it can be used for; when its use is appropriate; how to reference it in your research; and refers to further links for information.

The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) (National Statement 2007), and as updated, consists of a series of guidelines made in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992.

To support the delivery of high-quality clinical trial services the Commission has developed the National Clinical Trials Governance Framework on behalf of all jurisdictions in collaboration with the Australian Government Department of Health.