Final answer:
The role of the Research Ethics Board (REB) under TCPS 2 is to review the ethics of research involving humans. This includes adherence to ethical principles such as autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice, and ensuring participant safety and informed consent.
Step-by-step explanation:
Role of the Research Ethics Board
Under the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS 2), the role of the Research Ethics Board (REB) includes the review of: the ethics of research involving humans. This encompasses ensuring that research studies adhere to ethical principles such as autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. REBs are tasked with providing oversight on how researchers treat their participants, whether the research involves physical procedures, psychological experiments, or observational studies. Institutional Review Boards (IRB), effectively serving as REBs in some regions, perform similar functions in research institutions and must approve any experiment involving human participants. The purpose of these boards is to protect human subjects from harm and to ensure that the research is conducted with integrity and in accordance with ethical guidelines. Additionally, animal research is overseen by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), ensuring humane treatment and ethical standards are upheld in animal studies.
It is crucial that all planned studies, whether they concern clinical trials or other types of human participant research, secure approval from an IRB or a similar ethics committee. The safety, informed consent, and privacy of participants are of utmost importance and are protected by law and ethical practices in research.