SynthesisBMJ global health2021
A systematic review on ethical challenges of 'field' research in low-income and middle-income countries: respect, justice and beneficence for research staff?
Synthesis in BMJ global health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Antenatal care utilisation among pregnant adolescents in urban Ghana: a qualitative study of individual, family and health system influences.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- "The most stress comes from witnessing the abuse of children" -challenges faced by research assistants in community-based research in Mtwara, Tanzania.BMC public health · 2026Article
- A framework and practical approach to identify and address ethical issues arising in interventional health systems research.International journal of nursing studies · 2026Review
- Exploring moral distress in research students in a paediatric humanitarian research setting: a qualitative study from the Mavrovouni closed controlled access center, Lesvos, Greece.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Professional education about pain in children and adolescents and current treatment practices among healthcare professionals working in Lebanon: a survey study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Intrinsic social media literacy: a public relations strategy addressing problematic social media use among teenagers globally.Cogent social sciences · 2025Review
- A practical guide to cross-cultural and multi-sited data collection in the biological and behavioural sciences.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Ethical challenges in global research on health system responses to violence against women: a qualitative study of policy and professional perspectives.BMC medical ethics · 2024Article
- Barriers to Decolonizing Global Health: Identification of Research Challenges Facing Investigators Residing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Global health, science and practice · 2024Article
- Editorial: Research priorities concerning formal and informal learning in low- and middle-income countries.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Identifying the conundrums of "global health" in the Global North and Global South: a case for Sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in Maharashtra, India: a mixed-methods study.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2023Article
- Global Mental Health: Where We Are and Where We Are Going.Current psychiatry reports · 2023Review
- Ethical reporting of research on violence against women and children: a review of current practice and recommendations for future guidelines.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Considering Risks to Researchers and Staff in Low-Resource Settings during Public Health Crises: A Proposed Conceptual Model.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- 'Why would they spend all this money and give us these items for free?': Exploring precarity and power in a cleaner cookstove intervention in rural Malawi.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- The ethical and validity conundrum in epilepsy research in LMIC settings.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- 'Labouring' on the frontlines of global health research: mapping challenges experienced by frontline workers in Africa and Asia.Global public health · 2022Article
- The ethical implications of verbal autopsy: responding to emotional and moral distress.BMC medical ethics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPrimary data collection in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) is associated with a range of ethical complexities. Considerations on how to adequately ensure the well-being of research staff are largely neglected in contemporary ethics discourse. This systematic review aims to identify the ethical challenges that research staff across different hierarchical levels and scientific disciplines face when conducting research in LMICs.
methodsWe searched 13 electronic databases and handsearched publications in six selected journals as well as the reference lists of all included studies. No restrictions were applied with respect to the publication date, research design, and target population.
results23 151 studies were retrieved, 183 of which met our inclusion criteria. We identified nine different types of ethical challenges that research staff may be exposed to during field research, including (1) role conflicts that can emerge from participants' help requests and the high level of deprivation found in certain study settings, (2) feelings of guilt and (3) detrimental mental health impacts. Further challenges were (4) sexual harassment (5) safety risks and (6) political repression, particularly in postconflict, disaster-ridden or autocratic study contexts. Additionally, studies reported (7) inadequate working conditions and (8) power imbalances within research teams, while (9) ethics boards were found to be ill equipped to anticipate and address emerging risks, thus increasing the ethical liability of researchers.
conclusionThis review revealed several complex ethical challenges that research staff may face during data collection. In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 8.8 on 'safe and secure working environments' and to protect research staff from harm, amendments must urgently be made to current ethical standards. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019131013.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.