Examining and Understanding the Need for Canadian Research Ethics Board (REB) Member Standardized Education: Governance Views from the Field

Introduction The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS), was rolled out in 1998. This unique Canadian research guidance document is updated regularly and posts the following instructions: "Notice: Effective 2003, the electronic version of the TCPS constitutes the official version of the policy document." (1) This dynamic document was joined, in 2004, by the Panel for Research Ethics (PRE) Tutorial that includes the following statement: "The Tutorial for the TCPS helps to educate the research community about the TCPS. It also facilitates the use, interpretation and implementation of the TCPS." (2) In our view, the Tutorial relates more to principles than the practice covered in the first five chapters of the TCPS. As of October 31st 2008, 35,399 individuals had completed the tutorial since its introduction. (3) These two living documents frame and inform the Research Ethics Board (REB) decisionmaking process. However, given that there is no formal governance or monitoring of Canadian REBs, one can hypothesize that variable standards of what constitutes human research ethics review may exist. (4) Since there is no accreditation or formal national oversight system, it is not surprising that there is also no standardized or national REB member orientation or continuingeducation program.