Dr Gary Allen

Gary has worked in the human research ethics area since 1997, working with a number of research institutions, state and federal departments, private companies and research ethics committees in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. He has a degree in education and a professional doctorate in social sciences. His doctoral thesis on the establishment of positive institutional research ethics arrangements was recognised with an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from the Queensland University of Technology.

Gary has a fulltime and ongoing position as a Senior Policy Officer at the Office for Research, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

His knowledge and expertise in regards to the national and international governance of ethical conduct in research has resulted in him serving on numerous national committees, on four separate occasions as a training facilitator for the NHMRC and to advise the committee working on the 2007 review of the National Statement with regards to the conduct of proportional review.  Gary is a current member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee and is serving on a number of NHMRC working groups.

Gary is a frequent presenter at conferences and has been invited by a number of Australian universities to conduct workshops on the National Statement and the Australian Code. In 2007, he co-presented a workshop with the then CEO of the NHMRC about the National Statement and the Australian Code. In 2007, his work in contributing to the learning of students in the human research ethics was recognised with a national teaching Citation from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Gary’s work in producing useful, clear, thoughtful and quality resource documents is nationally recognised.

He is principal author of the Griffith University Research Ethics Manual, which is a booklet based resource for researchers, ethics reviewers and educators. In 2014 Griffith University commercialised the GUREM and licenses have been purchased by 7 universities, 2 more are signing the paperwork, and two government departments and two more universities are considering purchasing a license.

He is a member of the sub-committee responsible for research ethics of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology. He is also one of the founding members of the Australasian Human Research Ethics Association.

Gary has been commissioned to conduct research ethics training for ethics committee members, research administrators, ethics advisers and researchers. He also been commissioned to provide advice on the reform of institutional human research ethics arrangements, and to providing ongoing expert advice on the governance of ethical conduct in research. During the last ten years he has consulted for peak research bodies, universities, hospitals, state and commonwealth government agencies, private sector organisations, and not-for-profit entities. He has also conducted sessions on resourcing the reflective practice of professionals for a multi-national financial company.

He was commissioned as a part of an international philanthropic project to assist with the establishment of human research ethics arrangements for the Hanoi School of Public Health, including the training of its new committee members.

Gary has experience in the organising and facilitating of conferences and professional workshops on research ethics and research integrity.

Gary has advised and assisted with the initiation of review and reform processes for a large number of Australian research institutions.

For 25 years he provided communication and IT consultancy services to a number of private sector organisations.

• Principle based governance, rather than rule based compliance
• Research ethics committee member training
• Research supervisor and HDR student training
• Research ethics advisor training
• Resourcing the reflective practice of researchers
• Research ethics governance – policy, processes, principles, resources, practical considerations and strategic initiatives
• Establishment of research ethics IT systems
• Research ethics change management
• Public sector ethics
• Freedom of information and regulatory privacy issues
• Research integrity policies, processes and resources
• Research integrity advisor training
• The conduct of the investigations into alleged research ethics or research integrity breaches

Articles in Refereed Journals

Allen, G (2008) Getting Beyond Form Filling: The Role of Institutional Governance in Human Research Ethics. Journal of Academic Ethics 6/2, pp105-116. ISSN 1570-1727 http://www.springerlink.com/content/…

Allen, G (2007) Mind the gap: Griffith University’s approach to the governance of ethical conduct in human research. Monash Bioethics Review 26/1-2 pp57-67.

Chapters in Books

Allen, G and Muurlink, O (In press, 2018) Research ethics for human research and legal issues In Brough, P. (Editor). Advanced research methods for applied psychology: Design, analysis and reporting. Taylor & Francis (UK)

Allen, G and Israel, M (in press, 2017) Moving beyond Regulatory Compliance: Building Institutional Support for Ethical Reflection in Research. In Iphofen, R and Tolich, M (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Ethics. London: Sage.

Israel M, Allen, G & Thomson, C (2016) Australian Research Ethics Governance: Plotting the Demise of the Adversarial Culture. In van den Hoonaard, W & Hamilton, A (eds) The Ethics Rupture: Exploring Alternatives to Formal Research-Ethics Review. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Allen, G (2005) Research ethics in a culture of risk. In Farrel, A (ed) Ethical research with children. pp.15-26. Maidenhead England: McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 0-335-21650-1.

Professional Papers

Allen, G (2007) The governance of ethical conduct: We’re alert, should we be alarmed? Research Global, September

Allen, G (2005) Griffith University research ethics advisor system. HREC Bulletin, 9.