Why Tanzania needs to coordinate and regulate research

There is ongoing debate about the findings of a recent Twaweza research, as it apparently did the research without prior clearance from the Commission for Science and Technology (Costech).

In my view, this issue is being politicised.

I don’t intend to debate the research findings here, but I’d like to shed some light on research processes.

In my career, I did health research – mostly quantitative research like clinical trials and research involving patients, where we took blood and other body fluids for testing. An Ethical Research Clearance (ERC) was mandatory, and I had to submit my research proposals to MUHAS/NIMR, TFDA and the specific health facility.

This was a very painful and frustrating exercise, a barrier to researching, but I always abided by the rules.

Ironically, some of my colleagues conducted qualitative research without obtaining ERC. According to some of them, qualitative research (like the Twaweza research) causes no harm, mostly involving healthy individuals who only answer a few questions. Hence the need to obtain RC was superfluous.

In afterthought, however, a sensible route should be a one-stop clearance system encompassing the interests of all these institutions.

Indeed, there are ways to improve this process; but this is not the topic here today.

Occasionally, foreigners who collaborated with local institutions approached me to participate in their questionnaire studies. Because I invariably demanded to see a valid ERC up-front – which they didn’t always have – I was perceived as being uncooperative.

There is a lot of data on Tanzania in the public domain that’s obtained without ERC some of which is erroneous.

In any case, conducting research must be coordinated and regulated. If not done, the research agenda will be derailed, and the country involved will not benefit from it.

It’s important that research findings, inferences and recommendations are authentic so that the public gets accurate information.

Whether it is qualitative or quantitative research, ERC goes beyond the normal definition of ethics. It looks into many aspects of a research proposal, and add value to it so that ‘good’ research is done, while ‘bad’ research is definitively out.

The ERC review process looks into different aspects, including honesty, objectivity, integrity, care, openness, respect for intellectual property, confidentiality, responsibility for research management, publication, responsible mentoring, respect for colleagues, social responsibility, non-discrimination, competence, legality, animal care and human subjects protection.

ERCs would normally enrich research proposals by, firstly: promoting the aims of research – such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error, prohibition against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data, promote the truth and minimize error.

Secondly, since research often involves lots of cooperation and coordination among different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are essential to collaborative work – such as trust, accountability, mutual respect and fairness.

For example, many ethical norms in research – such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review – are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration.

Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions, and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely.

Thirdly: many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. For instance, national policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, human subjects protection and animal care are necessary in order to ensure that researchers who are financed using public funds can be held accountable to the public.

Fourthly, ethical norms in research also help to build public support for research. People are more likely to fund research if they trust its quality and integrity.

In the ongoing debate, the issue is: should the Twaweza report be classified as research? Is it an opinion poll, an exit poll or something similar to a market survey?

Opinion polls are usually very general and have only one question with multiple responses, while a survey is a research tool needing ERC.

Any opinion poll, survey, qualitative or quantitative research needs ethical clearance. The coordinating body – like Costech – decides based on guidelines to grant ERC waiver for an opinion poll or market survey.

If research isn’t properly coordinated, it would possibly be done disguised as an opinion poll – and there would be lots of bad researches and fabricated findings.

We may find ourselves in a situation where the public is fed with fabricated or inaccurate research findings.

There are no two ways about this. Tanzania needs to coordinate and regulate its research agenda – and the coordinators, Costech included, should take a more proactive and responsible role.