Table 4:

Overview of justifications for modifying, or not, research design during pandemic^*

Reasons safeguarding norms	Reasons for modifying norms
• Norms are already not rigorous enough • Rigour, validity, reproducibility • Harm to participants or population • No downstream benefit to population • Loss of sense of reality • More funding allows for more integrity safeguards	• Risk of not having knowledge is more dangerous • Certain norms are not essential in some studies • Increasing pilot/experimental studies to establish preliminary knowledge. Such studies do not always respect the norms of science • Speed

^*this table presents norms in no particular order of importance