Research abroad must at least meet Swedish ethical standards

In August 2024 the SUHF board adopted “Guidelines regarding higher education institutions’ responsibility for ethics in research abroad”.

The idea of the guidelines is to clarify the ethical requirements that should apply and how they can be satisfied when Swedish higher education institutions conduct research abroad.

“The guidelines remind institutions about standards that already exist. This is not a new policy. It is based on more than 60 years of ethical clearance and review,” says Stefan Eriksson, Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on Good Research Practice.

The document has been produced by SUHF’s expert group on ethical issues. Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University, chairs the group and Stefan Eriksson is chief executive. The group also includes eight members from other higher education institutions, the Swedish National Union of Students and SUHF.

“Since Uppsala University is well represented in SUHF’s ethics group, we naturally endorse this guidance as an institution and expect the University’s activities to follow the guidelines,” Eriksson says.

All research must at least meet Swedish ethical standards

Put briefly, the guidelines mean that Swedish research must comply with good research practice regardless of where it is conducted. Research conducted abroad must live up to Swedish ethical standards at the minimum.

“SUHF has produced these guidelines because there is a recognised gap in the ethical review system in a global perspective. The Ethical Review Act only applies in Sweden. Of course other countries generally have equivalent legislation but it is not certain that you will be able to apply for ethical clearance in another country as a researcher from Sweden. Moreover, there are areas with unsatisfactory ethics legislation or a complete absence of infrastructure for ethical review.”

There have been a number of well-publicised cases of ‘ethics dumping’ in research, though none involving Uppsala University. Ethics dumping occurs when research is possible in another country because of a different or lower ethical standard or other circumstances. Of course this can happen both knowingly and unknowingly from the researcher’s perspective. Many research funding bodies do not allow ethics dumping.

The guidelines in brief

The guidelines consist of two parts. The first part deals with the researcher’s obligation to seek information. Has a permit been obtained, what requirements apply in the place concerned, has consent been obtained? Are there any obviously dubious aspects from an ethical perspective?

“The second part spells out that if, as a researcher, you are unable to obtain information or if it feels ethically dubious, you need to act. Researchers need to engage in ethical reflection and consideration before starting.”

Naturally many tricky situations will arise that are difficult for an individual researcher to assess.

“Contact the University’s support functions when you need help assessing a situation, there’s no need for you to be on your own in the assessment. We expect researchers to get in touch when questions arise. The University has a responsibility to help sort out difficult situations.”

Proposed new ethics act

In this context, it may also be appropriate to mention a proposal for a new ethical review act that has just been presented.

The government initiated an inquiry into the Ethical Review Act in May 2023. The inquiry submitted a memorandum to the government on 1 October 2024, proposing a new act on research ethics and ethical review.

The inquiry’s proposals include exempting a great deal of research from the requirement for ethical approval. This includes research where human research subjects have consented to data processing, or where the data are publicly available or in official documents and not classified as secret. In the view of the inquiry, this would significantly facilitate research in fields such as political science, law and anthropology.

The inquiry proposes, further, that research that would not come under ethical approval requirements should instead be handled internally within the organisation of the institution concerned.

“If the proposal becomes law, we will need to decide how to manage this at Uppsala University. We need to build up a capacity to handle research that is exempted from ethical review.”

The inquiry’s proposal is now with the government for further processing.

Anders Berndt