Ethical questions
Ethics is gaining importance in many researcher's professional lives. This is a welcome development since excellence in research depends crucially on good relations both to the scientific community and to society. On the other hand, the increasing diversification of academic ethics can at times be confusing. This page offers an overview of prominent topics and responsible units at ETH Zurich.
ETH Zurich ensures the protection of humans that are the subjects of research by abiding by federal and cantonal law as well as by its own regulations.
Individual research projects on humans are evaluated by ETH Zurich's Ethics Commission or by the external pageCantonal Ethics Committee depending on which is responsible.
Find out more on the page human subject research.
Animal experimentation is strictly regulated by the external pageFederal Act on Animal Welfare and the ETH Zurich Policy on Experimental Animal Research. Researchers are required to treat animals with knowledge and responsibility and to set examples in the implementation of the external page3R Principles.
Animal experiments must be approved by the external pageCantonal Veterinary Office. ETH Zurich's Office of Research provides advice.
Find out more on the pages on animal experimentation.
Accessing and using plant, animal or bacterial material from abroad for research is strictly regulated by external pageSwiss law. If you are an academic scientist doing research with biological material from abroad, you may need to comply with the Access and Benefit Sharing framework defined by the external pageNagoya Protocol.
Find out more on the page Nagoya Protocol.
It is integrity which makes the mutual trust possible that is the fundament of science. Good scientific practice includes transparency in planning, conducting, and publishing research but also concerns other areas such as the supervision of junior scientists, dealing with data responsibly, or the protection of ETH's interests.
The trusted intermediaries are the first contact point for all members of ETH Zurich seeking advice on research integrity, whereas the Commission for Good Scientific Practice is responsible for the strategic development of the topic.
More detailed information can be found on the page dedicated to scientific integrity.
Sensitive data as well as large amounts of data place high demands on researchers working with them. Scientific integrity requires sharing the data with the scientific community while at the same time protecting personal data.
ETH's Legal Office is the main contact point for issues of data protection. The Research Data Management and Digital Curation group at ETH Library offers advice on practical issues such as data management.