Textbook of Maritime Medicine

The ethical values are common to research whether quantitative or qualitative. The ethical virtues of research may often be followed from pragmatic reasons. E.g. doors may be closed in the future in case of badly conducted research. However, ethical values should count as values in themselves even though they can limit other qualities of research. The scientific integrity means that the researcher should be faithful to the collected data and not be guided by who is paying or supporting. 

In medicine ethical values influence the relation between the sick person and the treating therapist or doctor. When it comes to occupational health, the situation is even more demanding because stronger commercial interests may intervene. The occupational health professional should realize this and react accordingly. The situation with regard to maritime medicine is no different.

The International Commission of Occupational Health has issued a mode of conduct for occupational health professionals, which is equally applicable in maritime health. The code is accessible online: http://www.icohweb.org/core_docs/code_ethics_eng.pdf. Although the code has been designed for occupational health practitioners, most of the provisions cover situations and controversies that also apply to research activities.

In research, the privacy of the study subjects should be protected although it may not infrequently compel the researcher to refrain from otherwise obvious examples. The researcher must also meet the requirements for social responsibility by thinking about how others will use his research. It is wise to be diplomatic by not exacerbating relationships that were already problematic. In the dialogue with stakeholders it may be a quality criterion that the study subjects recognize themselves in the conclusions. At least it should be attempted to involve all actors as much as possible and to make the conclusions acceptable and understandable.

The ethical implications of research involving humans should always be analyzed in the planning phase. One crucial factor is whether the study persons may or may not benefit from the research. In the last situation the implicated risk should be assessed in absolute terms and should approach zero. The study persons should have a free choice with regard to participation and informed consent is mandatory. The Helsinki Declaration (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html) regulates all biomedical research. In many countries the ethical applications in study protocols for biomedical projects are to be approved by a regional or national committee. Register studies and studies that solely use interview or questionnaires may be exempted from approval.

Good scientific conduct requires the absence of scientific malpractice of any kind. Malpractice may arise in the planning phase as well as during conduction (false data, violation with regard to randomization or blinding, hidden selection of data), and publication (plagiarism, authorship) of research. Taking into consideration the vast amount of scientific publications double publications should be avoided. The Vancouver regulations that deal with these issues can be accessed at http://www.icmje.org/.