International guidelines on good governance practice for research institutions: Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS)

Scientific research is essential to protect and improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Researchers are also at the front line to respond to health emergencies. In recent years, the scientific community has been bearing heavy responsibilities to face some unprecedented challenges. Since the 1960s, numerous ethical, professional and industrial guiding documents have been adopted to facilitate and contain the increasingly complex research activities conducted with human participants globally. Many of these guidelines focus on individual researchers' responsibilities to protect research participants while conducting good quality scientific studies. In practice, however, it is rarely assessed to what extent researchers are given the necessary resources for this purpose at their institutions. These guidelines review the existing standards and best practices in the field, and offer research institutions detailed and specific guidance on how to implement them.