Paper short abstract:

The paper presents results of an explorative, qualitative study on non-mandatory ethics committees at Austrian universities. It looks at tasks, set-up, modes of operation, experiences and factors that promote or inhibit the work of university ethics committees.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses 9 non-mandatory organizations and sub-units of the Austrian university landscape that deal with research ethics or - some of them, more broadly with ethical questions of research. The paper studies these organizations' tasks, organizational set-ups, modes of operation and the extent to which they are doing well in terms of "managing contestation" and "responsibilisation" of research. Moreover, the paper looks into factors that promote and inhibit their work.

The paper is based on document analysis and nine interviews with chairpersons or senior employees of ethics bodies.

The establishment of non-mandatory ethics bodies in Austria is a recent development which was triggered by pressure from inside the research system (requirement for ethical clearance; growing awareness of ethics in research in parts of the research community; reorganisation of the university system) and outside universities (various public scandals because of suspected or actual scientific misconduct). Analysis of existing non-mandatory ethics bodies in Austria shows the following typology:

• Service bodies based on voluntariness;

• Control bodies;

• Bodies promoting ethical reflection;

• Bodies investigating scientific misconduct.

In the sample, service bodies were most frequent (5 cases), followed by bodies investigating scientific misconduct (2), control bodies and bodies promoting ethical reflection (1 each).

Ethics bodies in Austria today are clearly "responsibilisation in the making". Despite the achievements reported by their chairpersons, it is currently unclear whether they work well in terms of "managing contestation" and "responsibilisation". In order to address these questions, further research into the impact of ethics bodies is necessary.