Understanding human participant research ethics: The perspectives of social scientists in Central Asia


Sagitova R. Ramazanova M. Sharplin E. Berekeyeva A. Parmenter L.
January 2024Elsevier Ltd

International Journal of Educational Research
2024#124

Central Asian (CA) countries have been actively developing their research and knowledge production systems. However, inconsistent alignment with international research ethics norms creates challenges for researchers in CA to equally participate in global knowledge production. Based on quantitative survey responses of 296 social science researchers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, this paper explores social scientists’ understandings of international principles and practices of human participant research ethics. The findings show that CA social science researchers focus on a broad understanding of research integrity, focused on academic and professional integrity. The respondents highlighted the importance of individual researcher values such as honesty, responsibility, and respectfulness. With only 35 % of the respondents reporting the existence of a research ethics committee (REC) at their institutions, most respondents believe that human participant research ethics are an individual rather than an institutional responsibility in Central Asia. This study has implications for developing research and policy in other post-Soviet and emerging research contexts.

Central Asia , Ethics , Human participant research ethics , Research ethics committees , social sciences

Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи

Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan

Graduate School of Education

10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель

Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026