Payment of research participants: current practice and policies of Irish research ethics committees.
Affiliation
Cluain Mhuire Community Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland. dr.roche.eric@gmail.comIssue Date
2013-09Keywords
RESEARCHETHICS
MeSH
Ethics Committees, ResearchEthics, Research
Guidelines as Topic
Human Experimentation
Humans
Ireland
Motivation
Research Subjects
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Roche E et al. Payment of research participants: current practice and policies of Irish research ethics committees. J Med Ethics. 2013, 39 (9):591-3Journal
Journal of medical ethicsDOI
10.1136/medethics-2012-100679PubMed ID
23204324Abstract
Payment of research participants helps to increase recruitment for research studies, but can pose ethical dilemmas. Research ethics committees (RECs) have a centrally important role in guiding this practice, but standardisation of the ethical approval process in Ireland is lacking.Our aim was to examine REC policies, experiences and concerns with respect to the payment of participants in research projects in Ireland.
Postal survey of all RECs in Ireland.
Response rate was 62.5% (n=50). 80% of RECs reported not to have any established policy on the payment of research subjects while 20% had refused ethics approval to studies because the investigators proposed to pay research participants. The most commonly cited concerns were the potential for inducement and undermining of voluntary consent.
There is considerable variability among RECs on the payment of research participants and a lack of clear consensus guidelines on the subject. The development of standardised guidelines on the payment of research subjects may enhance recruitment of research participants.
Item Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
1473-4257Sponsors
Funding The cost of postage for the survey was covered by the Lucena Foundation as part of a fund made available to the Academic Chair.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1136/medethics-2012-100679
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