Which practice is essential for protecting the welfare of research participants?

Ensuring confidentiality and anonymity is fundamental for protecting the welfare of research participants. This practice upholds the ethical obligation to respect and safeguard participants' personal information. When researchers maintain confidentiality, they prevent the disclosure of sensitive data that could potentially harm participants if made public. Anonymity adds an additional layer of protection, ensuring that individual responses cannot be linked back to participants.

When participants know that their information will be kept confidential, they are more likely to engage openly and honestly in the research. This fosters trust between participants and researchers, which is critical for the integrity of the research process.

In contrast, other practices such as providing adequate compensation, while beneficial, do not directly address the protection of participants' privacy and sensitive data as effectively as ensuring confidentiality and anonymity does. Conducting research without approval violates ethical standards and could compromise participant safety. Minimizing documentation may hinder accountability and transparency, which are also key to protecting participant welfare. Overall, ensuring confidentiality and anonymity is a core ethical principle in research that directly influences participants' rights and protections.