The ethical review of research protocols : a challenge for European psychology

Making sure that our research is ethical, is a crucial task. What depends on it is nothing less than the health and well-being of our participants as well as the outside credibility and support of psychology as a science and profession. History has given us some examples of notoriously controversial experiments, showing the need for ethical peer-review. Medical experiments are legally prohibited without such a review, and one may expect that the same will sooner or later also apply to experiments in clinical psychology. Instead of resisting these trends, we can also ride their waves for the benefit of all. Amongst the side-effects will be an improved quality of our research by bringing forward the peer-review process from the end to the start of the research process.