Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Researchers and research ethics committees share a common goal of conducting ethically sound research. However, little is known of researchers’ experiences in obtaining ethics approval for suicide-related studies. This study aimed to investigate what concerns researchers have received on suicide-related ethics applications and how they dealt with it. Thirty-four respondents, recruited through the International Association for Suicide Prevention, filled out an online survey. The study found that researchers have received important concerns regarding potential harm and researchers’ responsibilities to participants. Researchers modified their application and/or consulted their research ethics committee in response to the concerns, which had a positive/neutral impact on their given study. Anticipating concerns and improved collaboration between researchers and research ethics committees should protect the quality of suicide prevention research.

Keywords

ethical review ethics institutional review board research research ethics suicide prevention

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbott

Grady

(2011). A systematic review of the empirical literature evaluating IRBs: What we know and what we still need to learn. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 6, 3-19. doi:10.1525/jer.2011.6.1.3

af Wåhlberg

A. E.

Poom

(2015). An empirical test of nonresponse bias in internet surveys. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 37, 336-347. doi:10.1080/01973533.2015.1111212

Andriessen

Krysinska

Draper

Dudley

Mitchell

P. B.

(2018). Harmful or helpful? A systematic review of how those bereaved through suicide experience research participation. Crisis, 39, 364-376. doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000515

Andriessen

Reifels

Krysinska

Robinson

Dempster

Pirkis

(2019). Dealing with ethical concerns in suicide research: A survey of Australian researchers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7), Article 1094. doi:10.3390/ijerph16071094

Ashcraft

M. H.

Krause

J. A.

(2007). Social and behavioral researchers’ experiences with their IRBs. Ethics & Behavior, 17, 1-17. doi:10.1080/10508420701309614

Balen

Blyth

Calabretto

Fraser

Horrocks

Manby

(2006). Involving children in health and social research: “Human becomings” or “active beings?” Childhood, 13, 29-48. doi:10.1177/0907568206059962

Blades

C. A.

Stritzke

W. G.

Page

A. C.

Brown

J. D.

(2018). The benefits and risks of asking research participants about suicide: A meta-analysis of the impact of exposure to suicide-related content. Clinical Psychology Review, 64, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2018.07.001

Bryman

(2012). Social research methods (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Commonwealth of Australia. (2018). National statement on ethical conduct in human research 2007 (updated 2018). Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: The National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and Universities Australia, Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from https://nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/national-statement-ethical-conduct-human-research-2007-updated-2018

10.

Edwards

S. J.

Kirchin

Huxtable

(2004). Research ethics committees and paternalism. Journal of Medical Ethics, 30, 88-91. doi:10.1136/jme.2002.000166

11.

Fisher

C. B.

Pearson

J. L.

Kim

Reynolds

C. F.

(2002). Ethical issues in including suicidal individuals in clinical research. IRB: Ethics & Human Research, 24(5), 9-14. doi:10.2307/3563804

12.

Gibson

Benson

Brand

S. L.

(2013). Talking about suicide: Confidentiality and anonymity in qualitative research. Nursing Ethics, 20, 18-29. doi:10.1177/0969733012452684

13.

Guillemin

Gillam

Rosenthal

Bolitho

(2012). Human research ethics committees: Examining their roles and practices. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 7(3), 38-49. doi:10.1525/jer.2012.7.3.38

14.

Hom

M. A.

Podlogar

M. C.

Stanley

I. H.

Joiner

T. E.

Jr. (2017). Ethical issues and practical challenges in suicide research. Crisis, 38, 107-114. doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000415

15.

Iacono

(2006). Ethical challenges and complexities of including people with intellectual disability as participants in research. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 31, 173-179. doi:10.1080/13668250600876392

16.

IBM Corp. (2016). IBM SPSS statistics for Windows (Version 24.0) [Computer software]. Armonk, NY: Author.

17.

Keith-Spiegel

Koocher

G. P.

Tabachnick

(2006). What scientists want from their research ethics committee. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 1, 67-81. doi:10.1525/jer.2006.1.1.67

18.

Klitzman

(2011). The ethics police? IRBs’ views concerning their power. PLoS ONE, 6(12), e28773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028773

19.

Lakeman

Fitzgerald

(2009a). Ethical suicide research: A survey of researchers. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 18, 10-17. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00569.x

20.

Lakeman

Fitzgerald

(2009b). The ethics of suicide research: The views of ethics committee members. Crisis, 30, 13-19. doi:10.1027/0227-5910.30.1.13

21.

Large

Kaneson

Myles

Gunaratne

Ryan

(2016). Meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies of suicide risk assessment among psychiatric patients: heterogeneity in results and lack of improvement over time. PloS one, 11, e0156322. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156322

22.

Mishara

B. L.

Weisstub

D. N.

(2005). Ethical and legal issues in suicide research. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 28, 23-41. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2004.12.006

23.

Mishara

B. L.

Weisstub

D. N.

(2016). The legal status of suicide: A global review. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 44, 54-74. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.08.032

24.

Mondragón

B. L.

Guarneros

G. T.

Jimenéz

T. A.

(2017). Ethical evaluation of mental health social research: Agreement between researchers and ethics committees. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 12, 161-168. doi:10.1177/1556264617708937

25.

Oquendo

M. A.

Stanley

Ellis

S. P.

Mann

J. J.

(2004). Protection of human subjects in intervention research for suicidal behavior. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 1558-1563. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.161.9.1558

26.

Pachana

N. A.

Liddle

Peel

N. M.

Beattie

Juang

Knight

B. G.

(2015). Can we do better? Researchers’ experiences with ethical review boards on projects with later life as a focus. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 43, 701-707. doi:10.3233/JAD-141956

27.

Reifels

Ftanou

Krysinska

Machlin

Robinson

Pirkis

(2018). Research priorities in suicide prevention: Review of Australian research from 2010–2017 highlights continued need for intervention research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(4), Article 807. doi:10.3390/ijerph15040807

28.

Robinson

Bailey

Hetrick

Paix

O’Donnell

Cox

. . . Skehan

(2017). Developing social media-based suicide prevention messages in partnership with young people: Exploratory study. JMIR Mental Health, 4(4), e40. doi:10.2196/mental.7847

29.

Stevenson

F. A.

Gibson

Pelletier

Chrysikou

Park

(2015). Reconsidering “ethics” and “quality” in healthcare research: The case for an iterative ethical paradigm. BMC Medical Ethics, 16(1), Article 21. doi:10.1186/s12910-015-0004-1

30.

Vitak

Proferes

Shilton

Ashktorab

(2017). Ethics regulation in social computing research: Examining the role of Institutional Review Boards. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 12, 372-382. doi:10.1177/1556264617725200

31.

Wassenaar

D. R.

Slack

C. M.

(2016). How to learn to love your research ethics committee. South African Journal of Psychology, 46, 306-315. doi:10.1177/0081246316654348

32.

Weissman

J. S.

Campbell

E. G.

Cohen

I. G.

Lynch

H. F.

Largent

E. A.

Gupta

. . . Carnie

(2018). IRB oversight of patient-centered outcomes research: A national survey of IRB chairpersons. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 13, 421-431. doi:10.1177/1556264618779785

33.

World Bank. (2019). Country classification. Retrieved from https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/topics/19280-country-classification

34.

World Health Organization. (2014). Preventing suicide: A global imperative. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/mental_health/suicide-prevention/world_report_2014/en/

35.

World Medical Association. (2013). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Retrieved from https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/

36.

Zalsman

Hawton

Wasserman

van Heeringen

Arensman

Sarchiapone

. . . Zohar

(2016). Suicide prevention strategies revisited: 10-year systematic review. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3, 646-659. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30030-X

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.25 MB

Ethical Concerns in Suicide Research: Results of an International Researcher Survey

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material