Preamble:
The Sandip Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences emphasizes on promoting and maintaining high standards of integrity and accountability in conduct of academic research and is keen to implant and endorse a culture of honesty and transparency in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences; undertaking this commitment, the Institute highlight that academic freedom is a core value to be defended and sustained. The Institute is dedicated to guarantee a free academic environment to conduct research with ethical values and to publish the same.
Objectives of Policy:
- To inculcate & promote research culture amongst the faculty members and students.
- To endorse best practices with ethical values in research.
- To respect the values of truth, fairness in experimental results and analysis.
- To sustain the integrity of a Research methodologies in discipline.
The purpose of this Code is to offer some guidance to researchers in the field of Pharmacy in keeping with the aims of the Society to value and promote the highest ethical standards in Pharmacy research. The Code of Ethics is intended to promote and support good practice.
In the pharmacy profession, the health and welfare of the public has always been and will continue to be the foremost concern among pharmacists. For this principle to be consistently placed above all other considerations in the practice of pharmacy, the Code of Conduct for students has embodied the minimum standards of proper conduct and professionalism for guidance of future pharmacists. The pharmacist can combine scientific research with professional care, the objective being the acquisition of new knowledge, only to the extent that the research is justified by its potential value for the patient.
Ethical principles in research:
- Voluntary participation (Informed consent) – Subjects enrolled in research must agree to reveal information about them and they should be informed about the treatment they shall be undergoing before agreement.
- Non-maleficence (No harm to the subjects) – Subjects should be free from reasonably anticipated physical or emotional harm.
- Privacy and Confidentiality: Pharmacists should keep all information acquired in the course of professional practice as confidential. Confidential information is disclosed only in cases where the patient or client (or the patient’s or client’s agent) provides consent, where the law demands or where disclosure will protect the patient or clients or others from harm. Researcher should also ensure compliance with the consumer’s right to privacy.
- Beneficence (Promotion of well being): It mainly concerns with the researcher’s duty and responsibility to minimize harm and maximize benefits.
- Researcher should respect the consumer’s choice including the right to refuse treatment, care or advice, or to withdraw consent at any time.
- Principle of Justice: The researcher should behave equally with all subjects without discriminations on any ground and respect their right to fair treatment and privacy.
- Respect the dignity of patients or clients: Pharmacists should respect the dignity of patients or clients with diminished competence and seek to involve them, to an appropriate extent, in decisions regarding their health.
- Approval from regulatory bodies: Pharmacist shall not be a party to any research on human beings unless the research proposal has been approved by the appropriate ethics committee.
- Respect patients’ autonomy: Pharmacists must encourage and empower patients, or in certain circumstances their careers/guardians, to actively participate in decisions about their health and care, and to manage their condition.
- Quality: Researchers should maintain quality, accuracy, reliability of their own research or research done under supervision. The research should be limited to academics and technical, financial excellence of his research area. Highest quality standards should be applied for planning, implementation and reporting of research.