Responsible researchers and reviewers: Ethics of Good Clinical Practice silver jubilee workshop report

Ethics education in biomedical research in India is frequently limited to regulatory compliance, with inadequate emphasis on ethical reasoning, contextual vulnerability, and deliberative review processes. As part of the Silver Jubilee of the Institutional Ethics Committee of St John's Medical College Hospital, a one-day preconference workshop titled "Responsible Researchers and Reviewers: Ethics of Good Clinical Practice" was conducted during the 13th International Conference of Ethics Education. The workshop employed case-based, interdisciplinary discussions focusing on vulnerability, ethics committee accreditation, and ethical review of diverse study designs. Key gaps identified included difficulties in operationalising vulnerability, managing surrogate consent in critical care research, inconsistent ethics committee monitoring practices, and limited faculty preparedness for ethics pedagogy. The discussions revealed a need to move beyond knowledge transmission towards reflective, skills-based ethics education.