Research governance can be thought of as the broad range of regulations, principles, processes and systems that help to ensure good practice in the management and conduct of research. Governance regulations and systems aim to:
It is often repeated that research ethics was ‘born in scandal’ because its evolution has been repeatedly triggered by revelations about exploitation of participants in research. For instance, early medical experiments undertaken by physicians and biomedical scientist involved the use of vulnerable individuals (like orphaned children or prisoners) as ‘human guinea pigs’. History shows us that many of the early ethics codes and governance mechanisms were developed in response to such scandals in research. For instance, the Nuremberg Code was formulated in 1947, as a direct response to the abhorrent medical experiments by Nazi and Japanese doctors during the Second World War. While major scandals in research may not be commonplace nowadays, the development and refinement of research ethics codes and processes is ongoing as new ethical challenges and problems come to light.
Today, there are a multitude of ethics codes, policies and systems for research governance at international, national, organisational, and institutional levels. Finding out which governance mechanisms are relevant to a research study is of primary importance for all researchers when designing and conducting research.