About the CARE Program
CARE works to promote multidisciplinary and foundational discussion of ethical issues arising from research practice. It has two arms, each organized and moderated by CEHV ethicists:
- CARE Panels
- Monthly discussion panels with external speakers and experienced Ohio State researchers
- CARE Training Program
- A semester-long training program in the responsible conduct of research for investigators seeking to meet federal ethics guidelines
- A semester-long training program in the responsible conduct of research for investigators seeking to meet federal ethics guidelines
Why Ohio State needs CARE
The aim of CARE is to spark a university-wide conversation about research ethics that goes beyond the regulatory requirements for human subjects protection and research integrity as traditionally understood and defined.
When thinking about the ethical challenges that arise in academic research, we often conjure up one of two extreme images: (i) detailed, compliance-oriented feedback from institutional review boards or (ii) newspaper headlines that call attention to disgraced scientists, falsified data, and retracted articles. Missing from this binary picture are the complex and difficult ethical dilemmas and challenges that most researchers face every day.
There are researchers who are motivated by the scientific and social value of their work to responsibly design and conduct their research, but who nonetheless face pressing ethical challenges in the field or in the lab that they must navigate. These ethical challenges arise out of the persistent social inequities that create vulnerable populations, and from the demands of current funding structures, publishing practices, and norms of professional advancement.
Even the most responsible researchers face ethical challenges in the field or in the laboratory. They do not merely bear on the question of what is allowed—the questions that federal regulations and institutional oversight committees are designed to enforce—but rather questions about what is the right thing to do. In other words, researchers face questions not merely of what is ethically permissible but of what is ethically optimal.
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