Are students kidding with health research ethics? The case of HIV/AIDS research in Cameroon

Munung, Nchangwi Syntia; Tangwa, Godfrey B.; Che, Primus; Vidal, Laurent; Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer, Odile

doi:10.1186/1472-6939-13-12

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The database has a listing of publications on HIV/AIDS in Cameroon (journal articles, conference proceedings/presentations, books, book chapters) listed on a number of bibliographic databases and had been created as previously described. [ 13 ] The search was carried out using the name of the student and or thesis supervisor as the search term. If an article/conference presentation was found having the name of the student or that of his supervisor, we verified if the title was same or similar to that of the thesis and if the content of the article was similar to that recorded in the thesis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Munung¹,

Vidal²,

Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer³

2014

Ann Med Health Sci Res

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Background:Scientific publication is commonly used to communicate research findings and in most academic/research settings, to evaluate the potential of a researcher and for recruitment and promotion. It has also been said that researchers have the duty to make public, the findings of their research. As a result, researchers are encouraged to share their research findings with the scientific world through peer review publications. In this study, we looked at the characteristics and publication rate of theses that documented studies on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Cameroon.Materials and Methods:To check if a thesis resulted in a publication, we searched: A database of publications on HIV in Cameroon, African Journals Online, PubMed and Google scholar. For each publication we recorded if the student was an author, the position of the student in the author listing, the journal and where the journal was indexed. We also looked at the impact factor of the journals.Results:One hundred and thirty theses/dissertations were included in the study, 74.6% (97/130) were written as part of a medical degree (MD), 23.8% (31/130) a postgraduate (PG) degree and 1.5% (2/130) for a Doctorate/PhD. On a whole, 13.9% (18/130) of the theses resulted in at least one publication in a scientific journal with a total of 22 journal articles, giving a mean publication rate of 0.17 article/thesis, 86.4% (11/22) were indexed on PubMed, 9.1% (2/22) on African Journals Online and 4.6% (1/22) on Google scholar. One PG thesis led to two book chapters. The student was the first author in 22.7% (5/22) of the articles and not an author in 9.1% (2/22) of the articles. Student supervisor was an author in all the articles.Conclusion:This study reveals that most students in Cameroon failed to transform their theses/dissertations to scientific publications. This indicates an urgent need to sensitize students on the importance of presenting their research findings in scientific meetings and peer reviewed journals. There is also a great necessity to build capacity in scientific writing among university students in Cameroon.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Munung¹,

Vidal²,

Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer³

2014

Ann Med Health Sci Res

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“…The findings of our study highlight the need for conducting a well-structured research ethics training to faculty and post graduate students of the medical and dental speciality possibly as part of an obligatory module during their academic progress and postgraduate course 9,10 . The participants with prior training in ethics comparatively with participants without training in research ethics were more likely to agree with several questionable practices regarding research ethics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Knowledge, Awareness and Attitudes About Research Ethics among Faculty and Post Graduate Students of the Medical & Dental Professionals in Professional Institutions

2020

MLU

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Introduction:The research ethics plays a very vital role in the collection, analysis, reporting and publication of details about research subjects, in particular active acceptance of participant's right to privacy, confidentiality and the informed consent of the participant. Aims:To assess the Knowledge, awareness and attitudes about research ethics among the faculty and students of medical and dental colleges and the requirement for a regular teaching about research ethics among the faculty and students of medical and dental colleges. Materials and Method:A cross-sectional study was conducted by assessing the responses to 39 selected basic questions regarding Knowledge, awareness and attitudes about research ethics among a total of 415 faculty members and post graduate students of the medical and dental institutions in Mysore city of Karnataka state. The online questionnaire was created by using Google forms. The questionnaire was made into 5 categories. Chi-square tests was used to determine, in bivariate analyses, the association of each of the independent variables. The students t-test was done to assess the respondents scores on the 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. The average of their scores were compared among the various variable like their specialty and academic position by using the ANOVA test.Results: A total of 415 responses were obtained from the participants of the study. The response tabulated under various sections clearly showed deficiency in the understanding of research ethics. The P value was kept at 0.05 for this study. Conclusion:The participants of the questionnaire survey showed that the institutional ethics committees would be very useful for promoting health research and are imperative for appraisal of the health research projects. The requirement for a regular teaching about research ethics among the faculty and students of medical and dental colleges is very important. Further study in this area is very much needed.

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“…How can the young researcher respect ethical standards, without any prior research ethics knowledge or training, not to talk of knowing what an ethics approval is all about? Of 174 theses on Human Immuno Virus (HIV) in Cameroon, only 17 out of these had documented ethics approvals [ 2 ]. Out of 217 reviewed full length articles in the health sciences, 57.53% of these reported having obtained ethical approval [ 3 ].…”

Section: Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors and research ethics committees

Bain¹

2017

Pan Afr Med J

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Meaningful progress of medicine depends on research that must ultimately involve human subjects. Obtaining ethical approval therefore, especially in medical sciences, should be a moral reflex for researchers. This unfortunately is not the case, with numerous researchers bypassing the ethics approval procedure, or simply unaware of its importance. Good research involves risks taken by research participants and uses tax payers’ money in the process. These mandates the research endeavor to aim at attaining the highest degree of respect for the sacrifices made by others for science. Most researchers mistake scientific clearance or approval, for ethics approval. For a study to be ethical sound, it must be scientifically sound. This is only one of the activities carried out during protocol review. It is not uncommon for sensitive ethical concerns, especially in the social sciences to be overlooked and considered not to be accompanied by any serious risks for the research participants.The researcher has the responsibility of systematically consulting the competent ethics committee for advice and consequent approvals or ethical waivers. Journal editors and reviewers have the duty to systematically evaluate the ethical soundness of manuscripts submitted for review. Capacity building in research ethics and institutional support for Research Ethics Committees to speed up protocol review could reduce the incentive of carrying out research in human subjects without ethics approvals. It is hypocritical and idle to continue to expect optimal reviews on time and of good quality, from ethics committees functioning purely on altruistic grounds. Capacity building for researchers in research ethics, and institutional reforms and support for Research Ethics Committees appear not to have received the attention they truly deserve.

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Are students kidding with health research ethics? The case of HIV/AIDS research in Cameroon

Cited by 6 publications

References 26 publications

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Knowledge, Awareness and Attitudes About Research Ethics among Faculty and Post Graduate Students of the Medical & Dental Professionals in Professional Institutions

Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors and research ethics committees

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