The process of ethical research is as follows:
- Think ethically: As researchers, the African view is that you should think ethically all the time and not only think about ethics when it is time to research. This means that we embody ethics.
- Plan ethically: The researcher should not wait for a community, research participant, ethics committee or a peer to tell them that their plan is not ethical. Instead, plan what is ethical. Ethical research does not necessarily need an ethics committee to say it is ethical.
- Get approvals, advice, consents and confirmations: approval to do research is obtained from the people, community, organisations and leaders involved. They can also provide advice, consent or confirm your plans. Ethics committees provide approval, advice or both.
- Act ethically: From recruitment to the use of results, the researcher and their team should act ethically.