The carnage of substandard research during the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for quality
- PMID: 33004545
- DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2020-106494
The carnage of substandard research during the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for quality
Abstract
Worldwide there are currently over 1200 research studies being performed on the topic of COVID-19. Many of these involve children and adults over age 65 years. There are also numerous studies testing investigational vaccines on healthy volunteers. No research team is exempt from the pressures and speed at which COVID-19 research is occurring. And this can increase the risk of honest error as well as misconduct. To date, 33 papers have been identified as unsuitable for public use and either retracted, withdrawn, or noted with concern. Asia is the source of most of these manuscripts (n=19; 57.6%) with China the largest Asian subgroup (n=11; 57.9%). This paper explores these findings and offers guidance for responsible research practice during pandemics.
Keywords: epidemiology; public health ethics; research ethics.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing interests: The author owns a private consulting company focused on bioethics and clinical ethics (AskTheEthicist, LLC).
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