The Johns Hopkins University is deeply committed to the protection of human research subjects. This commitment begins with comprehensive compulsory education and training of its faculty, student and staff researchers who conduct human subjects research. The Course on Research Ethics (C.O.R.E.) is designed to address key concepts in human subjects protection in specific research communities.
CORE consists of three parts and provides practical information on the ethical issues involved in research protocol development and implementation:
- a web-based pre-conference knowledge assessment found at the compliance training website https://secure.lwservers.net
- a one-day instructor-led course consisting of lectures and small group discussions
- a post-conference web-based portion found at the compliance training website https://secure.lwservers.net
Course Objectives: Following this program, the participant should be able to:
- describe the context for the development of research ethics at the national and local levels
- recognize aspects of study design that can be ethically problematic including subject selection, research-related risks, conflicts of interest, and use of vulnerable populations
- describe the key concepts in informed consent, including respect for autonomy, voluntariness, decision-making capacity, disclosure of information, and understanding
- describe methods of protecting privacy and confidentiality in the context of human subjects research
- recognize the key concepts in the responsible conduct of research, including data acquisition and management, mentor/trainee responsibilities, publication practices and authorship standards, conflicts of interest and commitment, and scientific misconduct
