The Perspective of the Students and the Faculty Members of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences Towards the Inhibitors and the Facilitators of Ethical Compliance in Research

 Considering that university professors are one of the main groups of researchers and as students tend to be novices in this regard, it is of particular importance to examine their perspective and compliance with ethics in research. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the perspectives of the students and the faculty members of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences towards the inhibitors and the facilitators of ethical compliance in research in 2019.

 In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 66 faculty members and 144 students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences were selected through census and stratified random sampling, respectively. The research tools included a demographic information form as well as the questionnaire of ethical codes and inhibitors and facilitators of ethical compliance in research. The data were analyzed through SPSS version 18, using descriptive and analytical statistics. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to investigate the compliance of the data with the normal distribution. The chi-square test was used in data analysis, with a P-value<0/05.

Ethical Considerations: 

In all the stages of writing the present research, while respecting the originality of the texts, honesty and trustworthiness has been observed.

 Sixty-six participants (31.5%) were faculty members and 144 of them (68.5%) were students.  The most important inhibitor of ethical compliance in research from the students' point of view (84%), in the stage of choosing the topic, was the researcher’s insufficient awareness of ethics in research. From the faculty members' point of view (50%), the most important inhibitor of ethical compliance in research in the stage of reviewing the existing documents was the lack of skill in reviewing the existing documents including search skills. The most important facilitator of ethical compliance in research was placing more emphasis on the issue of ethics in research while presenting the course of research methods, from the faculty members' point of view (68%) and holding educational workshops on professional and research ethics, from students' point of view (37.5%). The results regarding the agreement to use ethical codes in research from the perspectives of the students and the professors in the three stages of choosing the research topic and stating the problem, reviewing the available documents and analyzing and reporting and publishing the results of statistical differences, showed the significance levels of P<0.001, P=0.007 and P=0.01, respectively.

 Despite the good state of ethical compliance and the appropriate performance of the ethics committee in research, there are still obstacles on the way to reaching better ethical compliance. The need to hold periodic training workshops, monitor research projects closely and provide the necessary infrastructure is felt.