Documentation of ethical conduct of human subject research published in Saudi medical journals.

We evaluated the documentation of ethical conduct (obtaining institutional review board approval and consent and following ethical guidelines) of human subject research studies published in Saudi Arabian medical journals between 1979 and 2007. Studies were classified as retrospective, prospective noninterventional, interventional or survey/interview. Of 1838 studies published in 286 journal issues of 11 Saudi Arabian medical journals, only 0.9% documented the ethical guidelines followed, with a significantly higher rate for studies published after year 2000 (1.7%). Of 821 studies requiring institutional review board approval, 8.6% documented obtaining the approval and informed consent, with a significantly higher rate for interventional studies (19.4%), post-year 2000 studies (19.7%) and studies performed outside Saudi Arabia (15.9%). The low documentation rate suggests editor's lack of rigor and/or investigators' ignorance of guidelines. The higher documentation rate after year 2000 suggests an ongoing improvement.