A narrative review of mentors’ roles and responsibilities regarding ethical aspects of student research with human participants

Abstract The objective of this narrative review was to systematize different mentors’ roles and responsibilities regarding ethical aspects of student research with human participants. The qualitative analysis of eight identified studies published since 2015 depicts the mentors in the roles of guiding, teaching, coaching, protecting, anticipating, modelling, and supporting while standing in direct relations with the mentees, the IRB, and their institution, and indirectly with research participants. Each relation results in different responsibilities for the mentors. The results portray the complex issue of power vs. responsibility distribution in the pedagogical relation between various subjects in the research process, as well as the issues of interpreting research ethics as a technocratic instrument of individual responsibilization or as a fundamentally relational, micropedagogical endeavour. The concluding part offers a comprehensive reflective framework for institutions currently facing challenges in mentoring student research with human participants, which can also serve mentors in guiding students in conducting such research.