Research: Codes and Guidelines

The number of professional guidelines, research ethics codes and legal regulations have increased tremendously in the last few years. In bioethics there is a strong focus upon such codes and guidelines. However, the fact that ethical concerns increasingly take on a legal form might create a situation where a procedure of legal interpretations replaces ethical reflection.

The website CODEX - Rules and guideleines for research is run in collaboration between the Swedish Research Council and the Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics. Stefan Eriksson, Senior Researcher, is the editor.

A completed project, "Are codes and guidelines the right way to go? On ethical competence in medical practice", investigated the concept of “ethical competence” within the field of medical practice and research and the importance of ethical guidelines in the development of such competence is studied. A philosophical study analyzed a number of ethical guidelines and an empirical investigation looked at how doctors and nurses make ethical decisions and if they are familiar with any ethical guidelines for their work. Previously, we have also conducted a study on codes of practice for ethics in research.

More information

• Stefan Eriksson, Associate Professor
  Editor www.codex.vr.se
  
  
  
  
• Kathinka Evers, Associate Professor
  
  
  
  
• Anna T. Höglund, Associate Professor