RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD

Purpose

The purpose of Research Ethics Board (REB) of Maldives Business School is to promote a culture of conducting quality research while complying with internationally accepted research ethical standards. Maldives Business School aims to establish compliance with research ethics across the college with the highest expectations for performance in research and oversight of research involving students as well as academic staff. 

Functions

1. Safeguard the rights and welfare of students and to protect those participants whose conditions are the focus of research projects.
2. Evaluate and approve research projects of all students who do research and ensure that any exclusion from participation is justified based on scientific, ethical, or safety concerns. 
3. Address ethical and regulatory concerns regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in research and support student and academic researchers and institutional efforts that are foundational to achieving research goals.
4. Evaluate all research students’ applications, including eligibility criteria, recruitment materials such as research topics and proposals, consent documents and processes, and other study documents for inclusive and equitable opportunities for potential students. 

Research Ethical Standards

The Maldives Business School follows the following international research standards. 

The Nuremberg Code 

The United States v. Karl Brandt et al. decision of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal incorporates what is now known as the Nuremberg Code, a ten-point statement limiting permissible treatment of human subjects. Human research is only justified if its results benefit society and it is conducted in accordance with fundamental principles that “satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts”.  

The consent of the human subject is necessary. 

• This means that the person involved in the research must have:

1. The legal capacity to give support.
2. Be in a position to exercise free choice without any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion.
3. Have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the subject matter involved to enable him to make an informed decision. 

• Before the research subject accepts an affirmative determination:

1. He must be informed of the nature, duration, and purpose of the research.
2. The method and means by which it will be conducted; all inconveniences and risks that can be reasonably anticipated.
3. The effects on his health or person that may result from his participation in the research.  

• Each individual who initiates, directs, or participates in an investigation is obligated and responsible for determining the quality of consent. It is a personal obligation and responsibility that cannot be delegated to another person. 
• The research should be such as to yield fruitful results for the benefit of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and excessive. 

The research should be devised and founded on the results of previous research and a knowledge of the natural history or other problem being studied in such a way that the anticipated results will justify its performance. 

The research should be conducted in such a way as to prevent all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and harm. No research should be conducted if there is an a priori reason to believe that mortality or disabling injury will occur.

The level of risk incurred should always be, at most, the level determined by the humanitarian significance of the problem to be solved.  

Appropriate preparations and ample facilities should be provided to safeguard the research subject from remote risks of injury, disability, or mortality. 

During the research, the researcher should be at liberty to bring the investigation to an end if he has attained the physical or mental state where the continuation of the research seems to him to be untenable. 

Helsinki Declaration – Ethical Principles 

1. It is essential for researchers to consider the ethical, legal, and regulatory norms and standards applicable to research involving human subjects in their respective countries, as well as applicable international norms and standards. Regardless of ethical, legal, or regulatory obligations at the national or international level, the safeguards for study participants enumerated in this Declaration must remain uncompromised and unchanged. 
2. Research is conducted within the framework of ethical guidelines that seek to promote and uphold the principles of respect for all those involved as human subjects and protect their well-being and fundamental rights. 
3. Each research proposal and project involving human subjects must define and justify the methodology and execution of the study in detail. 
4. Research involving human subjects must adhere to generally accepted scientific principles and be founded on a comprehensive understanding of the literature and other pertinent information sources. The protocol should describe the relevant ethical considerations and indicate how the principles outlined in this Declaration have been addressed.  
5. Every precaution must be taken to safeguard research subjects’ privacy, confidentiality, and personal information. 
6. The participating individuals must be competent to provide informed consent as research subjects must be voluntary.  

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) 

The research’s authorship should be explicitly stated and based on the following criteria: 

1. Significant contribution to the work’s conception or design or its analysis or interpretation. 
2. Drafting or revising the work is crucial for its intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the published version. 
4. Acceptance of responsibility for all aspects of the endeavor. In securing the entirety of the work, questions regarding the accuracy and integrity of any portion of the work are investigated and resolved.  

Contributors who are not authors: 

1. Contributors who satisfy only some of the four requirements should not be credited as authors.  
2. Disclosure is required of all financial and non-financial relationship activities and conflicts of interest.  
3. All published research must undergo peer evaluation within the college before submission to any journal.

Composition

1. Chair of the REB is a member of faculty selected by the president 
2. Head of Academic Affairs
3. Head of Corporate Affairs
4. Registrar
5. Three Faculty Member

Quorum

Four members

Frequency

As and when required.