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The Australasian Human Research Ethics Consultancy Services (AHRECS) team brings extensive experience and expertise to support your research ethics needs. We have collaborated with research ethics committees, regulatory bodies, and professional organisations across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, ensuring compliance with international standards, including US OHRPP and ORI requirements.
Our team combines a deep theoretical understanding with a practical knowledge of regulatory frameworks. With over 20 years of collective experience, our senior consultants excel in implementing best practices in research ethics training, systems, and reforms. By partnering with AHRECS, you gain access to trusted advisors who can help you navigate complex requirements, enhance your systems, and ensure ethical excellence in your research practices.
Latest blog entries
Ethical Use of Student Data in Higher Education – Advancing the conversation
In a 2016 conference paper discussing ethical use of student data I noted that there was a ‘disconnect between national and international perspectives of the importance of institutional policy and guidelines regarding ethical use of student data, and the perceptions of academics about these guidelines’ (Jones, 2016, p300). I suggested that one strategy for bridging…
Disaster Research and its Ethical Review
Disaster research ethics is a growing area of interest within the research ethics field. Given the lack of a universal definition of disasters, it should not be a surprise that disaster research ethics is defined in various ways. Early approaches focused on ethical issues in conducting research in the acute phase of disasters (O’Mathúna 2010).…
“More what you’d call guidelines”
In a notorious scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Barbarossa refers to the Pirate’s Code cynically as ‘what you’d call guidelines’ suggesting that conformity is merely a matter of choice: Elizabeth: Wait! You have to take me to shore. According to the Code of the Order of the…
Hints for Using Worked Examples in Training Sessions
[colored_box] Training sessions for new ethics committee members and new researchers frequently use a completed application as a fully-worked example of how to practically implement legislation, codes, and administrative processes. There is now a solid body of scientific findings that can guide the effective use of worked examples in promoting learning and its generalisation to…
On the Problem of “Worldlessness”. Do The Declaration of Helsinki and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Science Guidelines Protect the Stateless in the Research Context?
Associate Professor Deborah Zion Chair, Victoria University, HREC. deborah.zion@vu.edu.au Can these bones live? Ezekiel, 37:3. The Declaration of Helsinki has considerable guidance on working with vulnerable research participants, and vulnerability in research is the focus of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Science (CIOMS) guidance document. Both of these documents have undergone recent revisions[1].…
What’s been going on at AHRECS
We’re thrilled by how the AHRECS team has been growing and the expertise Sarah, Barry and Nik have brought to the team and the new services we can now provide. We hope in the coming weeks to announce some more additions to the team. The central ethos of resourcing reflective practice remains unchanged and we…
Can Your HREC Benefit from Coaching?
Atul Gawande, an American surgeon and researcher, sparked a debate in the medical community seven years ago with his New Yorker article Personal Best, in which he explored the benefits of coaching. The best athletes in the world, he reasoned, rather than sitting on their hard-earned laurels, employ coaches as a matter of course, to scrutinise…
Stop centring Western academic ethics: deidentification in social science research – Anna Denejkina
This blog will provide a discussion of issues present in deidentifying marginalised research participants, or research participants who request to be identified, in the publication of qualitative research. As my research is mixed-method (quantitative and multi-method qualitative) it included several data collection techniques and analyses. For this discussion, I will specifically focus on the face-to-face…
The inclusion of retracted trials in systematic reviews: implications for patients’ safety
After a paper has been through peer review and has been published it is the obligation of the scientific community to scrutinise an author’s work. If a serious error or misconduct is spotted the paper should be retracted and the work is removed from the evidence base. Over the past ten years there has been…
Australian Code 2018: What institutions should do next
Gary Allen, Mark Israel and Colin Thomson At first glance, there is much to be pleased about the new version of the Australian Code that was released on 14th June. A short, clear document that is based upon principles and an overt focus on research culture is a positive move away from the tight rules…
Vigilance versus vigilantism in science: Are ethics no longer important?
Michael James PhD, Senior Researcher, Rheumatology Unit, Royal Adelaide Hospital Les Cleland AM MBBS MD FRACP, Head of Rheumatology (1982-2015), Royal Adelaide Hospital In July 2016, the University of Adelaide received an allegation of research misconduct involving the PhD thesis work of a graduate student. We were her supervisors. We first heard about the allegation…
New resources coming soon from AHRECS
AHRECS has always had two primary missions: to provide relevant and up-to-date information services on human research ethics and research integrity and to provide expert consultancy services in those areas. We have developed and maintain free services – the Research Ethics Monthly and the Resources Library - that feedback shows are increasingly used and valued.…
The complex art of benefit-sharing
In community-based participatory action programs (programs which have a research component but which are also focussed on community development and empowerment), it might be possible to identify a link between a research project and a benefit to the participating community. Over and above conducting the study, in research on domestic violence, studies have provided emotional…
Research Ethics in Australia: A Story
Have you ever needed to find a history of human research ethics, whether for personal study or for use in professional development work with human research ethics committee members or researchers? Motivated perhaps by George Santayana’s often paraphrased ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, we at AHRECS have often needed…
Release of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 (updated 2018) – With interview
The revised National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 (updated 2018) was released on 9 July 2018. . Content of the updated National Statement The National Statement consists of a series of guidelines made in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 and is subject to rolling review. This…
Contextualising Merit and Integrity within Human Research: A Summary
Pieper, I and Thomson, CJH (2011) Contextualising Merit and Integrity within Human Research, Monash Bioethics Review,Volume 29, Number 4, pp 15.1 – 15.10 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03351329 A Series on the Four Principles of the Australian National Statement on Ethics Conduct in Human Research In this and succeeding issues of the Research Ethics Monthly, Ian Pieper and Colin Thomson will present short summaries…
How do we ‘do’ consent?
This blog post expands on ideas from our recent publication: McWhirter, R. E., & Eckstein, L. (2018). Moving Forward on Consent Practices in Australia. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 1-15. Recently I participated in a research study. With the research nurse sitting opposite me expectantly, I moved quickly to sign in the appropriate place. Hang on a…
It’s not (just) about the money
Let’s imagine for a moment that you are a mid-career university researcher with growing expertise in a particular field. A pharmaceutical company contacts you and says that it would like to recognise the important work you are doing in this area, and has asked you to choose among the following forms of recognition: $10,000 towards…
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