Plurality, transdisciplinarity and consensus: utopias of research ethics committees

Abstract

Research Ethics Committees must promote sensitive, reliable, and truthful science by ensuring the
validity and traceability of studies, maintaining ongoing dialogue with the scientific community,
and protecting participants. It is essential to assess whether their management fulfills these
guarantees. Understanding the challenges faced by Research Ethics Committees regarding pluralism,
transdisciplinarity, and consensus is therefore necessary. Interviews were conducted with members
of Research Ethics Committees from Latin American countries to explore challenges, consensus,
and experiences through a phenomenological analysis. A disconnect is observed between the normative
utopia and the practical reality of Research Ethics Committees, with epistemological tensions related to
ethical conceptions and decision-making models, as well as political tensions influenced by personal and
institutional interests. To move toward plural integration, multidisciplinary, inclusive, and deliberative
teams are required, with ethical training and a commitment to research integrity.