Aligning the principles and practice of research integrity and research fairness in global health: a mixed-methods study.

Introduction: In the past decade, global health research has seen a growing emphasis on research integrity and fairness. The concept of research integrity emerged in response to the reproducibility crisis in science during the late 2000s. Research fairness initiatives aim to enhance ownership and inclusivity in research involving partners with varying powers, decision-making roles and resource capacities, ultimately prioritising local health research needs.

Fostering research integrity in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges, opportunities, and recommendations.

Integrity and adherence to appropriate ethical standards are important elements of research. These standards are key to protecting research participants´ rights as well as ensuring the reliability and quality of research outputs. Although empirical evidence is scanty, several authors have alluded to the fact that violation of research integrity standards could be common in low- and middle-income countries including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Making global health 'work': Frontline workers' labour in research and interventions.

This Special Issue of draws on the concept of 'body work' among those employed to support operationalising, researching, and implementing global health while in direct contact with the bodies of others. This collection brings into sharp focus the specific forms of labour of those occupying positions as frontline workers - those who make global health includes authors from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and geographies. Through compelling ethnographies, qualitative interviews, and focus group discussions, they explore 'body work' globally, including: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), The Gambia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Lessons from the Ebola epidemics and their applications for COVID-19 pandemic response in sub-Saharan Africa.

COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2, was identified in December 2019, in Wuhan, China. It was first confirmed in sub-Saharan Africa in Nigeria on 27 February 2020 and has since spread quickly to all sub-Saharan African countries, causing more than 111,309 confirmed cases and 2,498 deaths as of 03 June 2020. The lessons learned during the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in some sub-Saharan African countries were expected to shape and influence the region's responses to COVID-19 pandemic.

Enhancing fieldworkers' performance management support in health research: an exploratory study on the views of field managers and fieldworkers from major research centres in Africa.

Introduction: Fieldworkers are part of the system that promotes scientific and ethical standards in research, through data collection, consenting and supporting research, due to their insider cultural knowledge and fluency in local languages. The credibility and integrity of health research, therefore, rely on how fieldworkers adhere to institutional and research procedures and guidelines.

Objectives: This study mapped out existing practices in training, support and performance management of fieldworkers in Africa, described fieldworkers' and their managers' experiences, and lessons learnt.

Taking the bull by the horns: Ethical considerations in the design and implementation of an Ebola virus therapy trial.

Ebola virus is categorized as one of the most dangerous pathogens in the world. Although there is no known cure for Ebola virus, there is some evidence that the severity of the disease can be curtailed using plasma from survivors. Although there is a general consensus on the importance of research, methodological and ethical challenges for conducting research in an emergency situation have been identified.

Enhancing quality and integrity in biomedical research in Africa: an international call for greater focus, investment and standardisation in capacity strengthening for frontline staff.

The integrity of biomedical research depends heavily on the quality of research data collected. In turn, data quality depends on processes of data collection, a task undertaken by frontline research staff in many research programmes in Africa and elsewhere. These frontline research staff often have additional responsibilities including translating and communicating research in local languages, seeking informed consent for study participation and maintaining supportive relationships between research institutions and study participants and wider communities.

Research Stakeholders' Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations.

Background: There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries.

Methods: Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing.

Involving Research Stakeholders in Developing Policy on Sharing Public Health Research Data in Kenya: Views on Fair Process for Informed Consent, Access Oversight, and Community Engagement.

Increased global sharing of public health research data has potential to advance scientific progress but may present challenges to the interests of research stakeholders, particularly in low-to-middle income countries. Policies for data sharing should be responsive to public views, but there is little evidence of the systematic study of these from low-income countries. This qualitative study explored views on fair data-sharing processes among 60 stakeholders in Kenya with varying research experience, using a deliberative approach.

Benefits in cash or in kind? A community consultation on types of benefits in health research on the Kenyan Coast.

Background: Providing benefits and payments to participants in health research, either in cash or in kind, is a common but ethically controversial practice. While much literature has concentrated on appropriate levels of benefits or payments, this paper focuses on less well explored ethical issues around the nature of study benefits, drawing on views of community members living close to an international health research centre in Kenya.

Methods: The consultation, including 90 residents purposively chosen to reflect diversity, used a two-stage deliberative process.

What are fair study benefits in international health research? Consulting community members in Kenya.

Background: Planning study benefits and payments for participants in international health research in low- income settings can be a difficult and controversial process, with particular challenges in balancing risks of undue inducement and exploitation and understanding how researchers should take account of background inequities. At an international health research programme in Kenya, this study aimed to map local residents' informed and reasoned views on the effects of different levels of study benefits and payments to inform local policy and wider debates in international research.

Methods And Findings: Using a relatively novel two-stage process community consultation approach, five participatory workshops involving 90 local residents from diverse constituencies were followed by 15 small group discussions, with components of information-sharing, deliberation and reflection to situate normative reasoning within debates.

Consulting communities on feedback of genetic findings in international health research: sharing sickle cell disease and carrier information in coastal Kenya.

Background: International health research in malaria-endemic settings may include screening for sickle cell disease, given the relationship between this important genetic condition and resistance to malaria, generating questions about whether and how findings should be disclosed. The literature on disclosing genetic findings in the context of research highlights the role of community consultation in understanding and balancing ethically important issues from participants' perspectives, including social forms of benefit and harm, and the influence of access to care. To inform research practice locally, and contribute to policy more widely, this study aimed to explore the views of local residents in Kilifi County in coastal Kenya on how researchers should manage study-generated information on sickle cell disease and carrier status.

Managing misaligned paternity findings in research including sickle cell disease screening in Kenya: 'consulting communities' to inform policy.

The management of misaligned paternity findings raises important controversy worldwide. It has mainly, however, been discussed in the context of high-income countries. Genetic and genomics research, with the potential to show misaligned paternity, are becoming increasingly common in Africa.

Promoting research integrity in Africa: an African voice of concern on research misconduct and the way forward.

African researchers and their collaborators have been making significant contributions to useful research findings and discoveries in Africa. Despite evidence of scientific misconduct even in heavily regulated research environments, there is little documented information that supports prevalence of research misconduct in Africa. Available literature on research misconduct has focused on the developed world, where credible research integrity systems are already in place.

Engaging communities to strengthen research ethics in low-income settings: selection and perceptions of members of a network of representatives in coastal Kenya.

There is wide agreement that community engagement is important for many research types and settings, often including interaction with 'representatives' of communities. There is relatively little published experience of community engagement in international research settings, with available information focusing on Community Advisory Boards or Groups (CAB/CAGs), or variants of these, where CAB/G members often advise researchers on behalf of the communities they represent. In this paper we describe a network of community members ('KEMRI Community Representatives', or 'KCRs') linked to a large multi-disciplinary research programme on the Kenyan Coast.

Profile: The Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS).

The Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS), located on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya, was established in 2000 as a record of births, pregnancies, migration events and deaths and is maintained by 4-monthly household visits. The study area was selected to capture the majority of patients admitted to Kilifi District Hospital. The KHDSS has 260 000 residents and the hospital admits 4400 paediatric patients and 3400 adult patients per year.

Strengthening the informed consent process in international health research through community engagement: The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme Experience.

Samson Muchina Kinyanjui and colleagues from the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme discuss how they modified their informed consent processes by taking into account local social, cultural, and economic contexts in the design and administration of consent forms.