It’s hard to miss the fact that ethical review is a subject of intense debate. Ethical review strengthens confidence in research that might otherwise risk harming people. However, there are many – especially in the humanities, law and social sciences – who consider these rules to be unreasonable and unclear, and feel they could jeopardise the freedom and quality of the research.
Many consider it unreasonable to require ethical review of public material, such as parliamentary papers, news articles in the daily press or precedents from the highest courts. It is unclear how interview- and observation-based research should be handled. Research questions are often adjusted during the course of the research, which makes it impossible to know in advance what material will be relevant. The broad interpretation of the concept of research has led some researchers to shy away from acting as experts in the media or as public educators.
Stockholm University is working hard at all levels to ensure compliance with the rules. The deans recently met with the Ethics Review Appeals Board, where we presented what we consider to be the problems with the regulations. We were told that the Board will not initiative oversight itself in the coming years, but will only handle complaints.
At Stockholm University, we will continue to develop procedures for the ethical review needed to ensure that research does not harm individuals. We will also continue to work for better regulation. For example, the Ethical Review Regulation stipulates that the Swedish Ethical Review Authority can issue regulations with exceptions for research involving human subjects in cases where it is clear that the research does not pose a significant risk to human health, safety or privacy. So far, no such exception exists, but it is high time it was introduced.
Because we cannot continue like this.
This text is written by Jessika van der Slujis, Dean of the Law Faculty. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where members take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in News for staff which is distributed to the University staff.