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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 3.
Published in final edited form as: J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics. 2008 Jun;3(2):77–86. doi: 10.1525/jer.2008.3.2.77

Table 3.

Frequencies and Percentages of Ethics Committee Concerns by Ethical Classifications.

Ethical Classification EthicsCommittee Concern Total


Consent Protocol Forms Frequency Percentage
Justice 3 12 2 14 19%
Requires attention to participant recruitment 2 10 0 11 15%
Inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting participants 1 2 2 3 4%
Beneficence 2 18 10 30 42%
Requires an examination of the experimental design 0 6 5 11 15%
Minimization of the risks of research participation 2 10 3 15 21%
Qualifications of the principal investigator to conduct the study 0 2 2 4 6%
Respect for Persons 24 15 5 41 57%
Requires attention to informed consent information, comprehension, and voluntariness 18 4 0 22 31%
Surrogate permission 1 1 0 1 1%
Maximization of choice 2 1 1 3 4%
Protection of privacy and confidentiality 0 5 4 8 11%
Protection of vulnerable population 3 4 0 7 10%
Untoward Effects 0 4 0 4 6%
Study staff safety 0 4 0 4 6%

Note: A single ethics committee concern may have multiple ethical labels, resulting in table totals in excess of the seventy-two substantive ethics committee concerns. In addition, one ethics committee concern could affect more than one content type resulting in a total greater than the overall frequency.