Ethics Board

Definition

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) that reviews research proposals to ensure they're not actively harmful to human subjects, serving as research's moral conscience.

Example Usage

The ethics board rejected our research proposal, noting that psychological distress and inadequate informed consent were 'concerning issues.'

Origin

Emerged following WWII and unethical medical research, formalized in the 1970s

Fun Fact

Ethics boards exist because sometimes humans will do remarkably unethical things in the name of research

Source: Research ethics and institutional review terminology

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