Research Ethics Committees’ Evaluations and Paper Publication s in Brazilian Journals

Abstract

Resolutions 466/2012 and 510/2016 from the Brazilian National Health Council present the determination that each institution which performs researches that involve human beings need to have a Research Ethics Committee (CEP). Those Committees have, as their first attribution, to evaluate research protocols for studies that involve human beings, analyzing ethical aspects of the work, and also to have a consultive and educative role in ethical matters. The ethical issues on research are becoming a debated topic, and so the CEP`s evaluation becomes more critical as ethical validation of the research. This paper aims to analyse the role of CEP’s ethical evaluation as a requirement for publication in Brazilian journals. The methodology consists in the analysis of “instructions to authors” from Brazilian Journals. The selection of journals will be made amongst the best classified in the Brazilian journal classification (QUALIS-Capes). Initial results suggest that, despite there are some journals that demand the CEP ethical analysis to publish the research, there is still a large number of journals that do not require a CEP approval to publish the paper, casting aside the importance of the evaluation.