Research Ethics Committees in Practice
Standards, Governance, and Continuous Improvement
€12.99€9.99
Research Ethics Committees in Practice
Context-Sensitive International Framework for Research Ethics Committees: Standards, Governance, and Continuous Improvement
Research ethics committees are expected to protect participants, support ethical research, and provide independent oversight. But what does an effective REC actually look like in practice?
This book brings together standards, practical guidance, assessment approaches and ready-to-use tools for anyone responsible for establishing, governing, reviewing, assessing or improving a research ethics committee — written by Dr Ghaiath Hussein, drawing on REC leadership, membership and international consultation work across Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and humanitarian settings, and building on a national accreditation framework he originally developed for Sudan in 2011.
What you'll find inside
The book is organised in seven parts:
Part I — Foundations. Why RECs matter, what they are and do, independence, authority and accountability, and what makes a framework genuinely international.
Part II — The REC Standards. 95 numbered, evidence-checkable standards across seven domains — governance, membership, resources, administration and records, review and post-approval oversight, quality management, and the ethical review of research itself — each rated on a four-level scale, with critical requirements flagged and minimum/good/advanced practice tiers shown.
Part III — Running an Effective REC. Decision-making, deliberation, researcher and institutional relationships, jurisdiction, what requires review, and the full REC lifecycle.
Part IV — Localisation, Context and Ethical Pluralism. A worked example of principled localisation through Islamic ethics and maqāṣid al-sharīʿah.
Part V — Assessing and Improving an REC. Self-assessment, internal and external audit, accreditation versus quality improvement, rating methodology and corrective action.
Part VI — The REC Toolkit. A complete self-assessment worksheet, external assessment framework, SOP index, eighteen field-level template skeletons, a performance-indicator dashboard, and an accreditation-readiness roll-up.
Part VII — Limitations, Future Development and Continued Dialogue. What this framework is not, and why it is offered as a continuing dialogue rather than a finished export.
Two appendices provide a full international foundations and crosswalk against WHO, CIOMS and other major instruments, and a complete development history from the 2011 original to this edition.
Who is it for?
Research ethics committee chairs and members
REC administrators
Researchers
Universities and research institutes
Hospitals and healthcare organisations
National research ethics bodies
Regulators
Organisations establishing or strengthening RECs
What's included
The digital edition of Research Ethics Committees in Practice encompasses the complete 165-page Pilot Edition, which addresses seven Parts and two Appendices, featuring 95 measurable standards and six practical toolkits.
This publication provides practical resources for REC self-assessment, auditing, standard operating procedures, performance monitoring, and readiness assessment, along with guidance on governance, independence, membership, competence, decision-making, jurisdiction, and continuous improvement.
Who is this book for?
This book is expertly crafted for Research Ethics Committee chairs and members, REC administrators, research governance professionals, researchers, universities, healthcare organisations, regulators, and institutions that are establishing or enhancing their research ethics review systems.
It is especially valuable for committees operating across various regulatory, institutional, and resource contexts, including those in resource-constrained and conflict-affected environments.
Edition 0.1 — Pilot Edition, 2026
This is the inaugural pilot edition of the framework. It is designed to facilitate practical use, provoke critical discussion, and enable continuous refinement. The framework asserts that no single model of research ethics governance is suitable for application without adaptation across various institutional and social contexts.