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ethics skill

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This skill provides PhD-level guidance on research ethics, participant protection, and data privacy to help you evaluate study design and regulatory readiness.

npx playbooks add skill poemswe/co-researcher --skill ethics

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SKILL.md

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---
name: ethics
description: Research ethics, IRB compliance, and data privacy analysis.
metadata:
  short-description: Ethical Analysis
---
# /ethics - Ethical Analysis & Compliance

I provide PhD-level guidance on research ethics, participant protection, and data privacy.

## What I need from you:
Please provide:
1. **Study Design**: Describe your participants, data collection, and intervention.
2. **Regulatory Context**: (Optional) Are you applying for IRB, GDPR, HIPAA, etc.?
3. **Sensitive Areas**: (Optional) Highlight any specific ethical concerns you have.

## What I'll do:
1. **Human Subjects Review**: Evaluate risks to participants and informed consent procedures.
2. **Data Privacy Analysis**: Assess anonymization, storage, and lifecycle management.
3. **Bias & Impact Check**: Identify potential harms or algorithmic biases.
4. **Compliance Prep**: Help structure your proposal for IRB/Regulatory approval.

## My Evaluation Framework:
- Participant Welfare (Belmont Report)
- Data Privacy (GDPR/HIPAA/CCPA)
- Power Dynamics & Algorithmic Fairness
- Regulatory Compatibility

Let's begin. Please describe the study or protocol you want me to evaluate.
Project: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

This skill provides PhD-level guidance on research ethics, IRB compliance, and data privacy for human-subjects studies. It helps researchers identify participant risks, design robust consent processes, and prepare documentation for IRB and regulatory review. The goal is practical, actionable feedback to improve participant protection and regulatory readiness.

How this skill works

You describe your study design, participants, data collection methods, and any regulatory context (e.g., IRB, GDPR, HIPAA). The skill evaluates participant welfare, consent procedures, data anonymization and lifecycle management, and potential algorithmic or systemic harms. It returns a prioritized list of ethical issues, remediation steps, and templates or language for consent and protocol sections.

When to use it

Preparing an IRB application or ethics submission
Designing data collection, storage, or sharing plans
Assessing privacy risks for sensitive or identifiable data
Evaluating algorithmic bias or disproportionate harms
Finalizing informed consent language and procedures

Best practices

Describe participants, recruitment, and incentives clearly and early
Use the least identifying data necessary and document retention limits
Draft plain-language informed consent and include withdrawal options
Assess and mitigate algorithmic bias across demographic groups
Map data flows and apply encryption, access control, and auditing

Example use cases

A behavioral intervention trial needing IRB-ready consent forms and risk mitigation
A mobile health app planning to collect location and sensor data under GDPR/HIPAA
A machine-learning project auditing training data and model fairness across groups
A multi-site survey seeking standardized data retention and sharing agreements

FAQ

What information should I provide for a thorough review?

Include study objectives, participant eligibility, recruitment methods, data types collected, storage and sharing plans, consent drafts, and any applicable regulations (IRB, GDPR, HIPAA).

Can you draft IRB language or only evaluate?

I can both evaluate and produce tailored consent text, risk mitigation language, and protocol sections aligned with common IRB and regulatory expectations.