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Editorial

Online platforms, digital tools, and ethics in Biomedical research

Wickramatilake C. M.

Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna

Email: chandimadhu@live.com

Research opportunities have been expanded and the feasibility of doing research and
accessibility to data has been increased over the past few decades with the

development of online platforms and digital tools. The use of the online platform to

collect data has become a popular mode recently with the COVID-19 pandemic. The
researchers and ethics review committees both need to be aware of the measures to

be taken to implement ethically sound online research. Moreover, researchers need
to understand that though the data collection is done differently, basic ethical

principles (autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-maleficence) apply to any
research endeavour (WMA, 2013).

Researchers need to pay special attention to the privacy risk and the issues related to

consent. If the researcher intends to use publicly available data in a website,

permission from the website owners is required and is obliged to abide by their
terms and conditions. In such situation application for ethical approval is necessary.

However, it may fall in the category of exemption from the ethical review.
Consultation of institutional policies, updated guidelines by the regulatory bodies on

the privacy and security measures in online research is essential for ethics review

committee members during the review process.

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