Developing Ethical Guidelines for Safeguarding Children during Social Research
A working party of academics from both professional safeguarding backgrounds and research backgrounds developed and wrote ethical guidelines on safeguarding children in research on behalf of their faculty research ethics committee. The working party encountered a lack of useful precedents while developing the guidelines leading to a lengthy process of debate and consideration of the issues. This paper explores the various issues and dilemmas arising during this process, particularly the tension between safeguarding children from abuse and maintaining research confidentiality. One of the main areas of discussion was how to establish the limits of confidentiality without compromising the research in hand. The role and responsibilities of researchers in supporting children's welfare, and the development of procedures for ensuring that safeguarding is effective are discussed as key elements. In addition, the issues researchers may face when determining thresholds for intervention are considered alongside the uncertainties created by considerations of the extent to which children can give informed consent in research contexts. The paper reflects the process of considering these issues and the conclusions the working party drew as to how best to support children's welfare during research. It also outlines the key elements of the guidelines and the structures developed to ensure researchers could get advice if suspected child abuse became an issue in their research. The paper includes a short version of the guidelines which were eventually approved across the Higher Education Institute.
Unpacking the ethics of access and safety of participants and researchers of child sexual abuse in Ghana
ABSTRACT Despite the generous legislative environments that protects children from sexual abuse, the magnitude of child sexual abuse has not changed much in most societies across the globe, especially in Africa. This has been attributed to the limited studies on the subject due to its sensitive and complex nature. Where studies are done, researchers have had to negotiate carefully through the matrix of gaining access and consent, through to ensuring that victims are not further victimized in the process of research. This paper discusses some practical and ethical challenges inherent in researching the phenomenon of child sexual abuse in Ghana. The paper outlines and discusses the undergirding principles and strategies for conducting child-sensitive research to serve as a framework for researches who want to conduct studies on child sexual abuse and other sensitive topics in Africa.
Microbial flora of frozen tail meat from captive Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus).
Frozen tail meat samples from nine Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) were evaluated for microbial numbers and types. Microbial analyses yielded a mean aerobic plate count (APC, 30 degrees C) of 4.86 log cfu/g, a mean coliform count (TC, 37 degrees C) of 3.77 log cfu/g and a mean faecal coliform count (FC, 44 degrees C) of 3.40 log cfu/g. Salmonella was isolated from three samples, and beta-haemolytic streptococci from two samples. Yersinia, Aeromonas, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus were not isolated. Typical bacterial genera recovered included Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Moraxella, Micrococcus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.