鑒於國科會人文處擬針對社會行為科學領域研究研擬制定「人類行為研究倫理治理架構」,建立「人類研究倫理審查機制」來審查所有以人類為受試者或參與者的研究計畫,務使研究均能善盡對於人類受試者或參與者的保護責任。本文乃擷取各美、英、加、澳等先進國家政府部門所出版的政策性刊物,同時廣泛涉獵各國政策性刊物中所提及的相關報告、重要文件和法規內容,進行文獻探討和文件分析,以呈現各國統籌社會科學研究倫理的主要政府部門和架構、所界定之社會科學「研究」範疇,以及所揭示的核心倫理原則等項。藉由文件分析歷程,本文從美國、英國、加拿大和澳洲等有關人類受試者或參與者之社會科學研究倫理之發展進程,歸納出數項核心倫理議題與倫理行動,包括四大核心倫理原則、以國家層級法令規範研究倫理行動,以及知情同意的內容與歷程等主題,以提供我國規劃研究倫理審查機制之參考。最後,藉由論述社會科學研究倫理議題的新挑戰,結合筆者於研究實務經驗中的觀察和省思,提出可行的建議。
The Department of Humanities and Social Science within the National Science Council in Taiwan has been worked hard toward the establishment of a ”Human Behavior Research Governance Framework”, aimed at setting up an ethical review mechanism to review all research proposal involving human subjects or human participants, and to protect vulnerable participants from any potential harms. This article is intended to do literature review and document analysis on government publications retrieved from websites among several developed countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, in order to present their governance frameworksfor social research ethics, various definitions and domains for social research involving human participants, and core ethical guidelines delineated by each nation. Based on literature review and document analysis, this article further investigates some core ethical issues and ethical conducts, such as four core ethical guidelines, national legislations for moderating ethical research conducts, as well as informed consent documents and processes. Finally, several new challenges in social science research involving human participants are further discussed.