# The proposed Code of Conduct for Research in South Africa: despite good progress, unresolved issues remain

## TL;DR

South Africa's proposed research code of conduct addresses privacy and data sharing but needs revisions to resolve unresolved legal and ethical issues.

## Contribution

The paper identifies unresolved issues in the proposed Code of Conduct for Research in South Africa and provides recommendations for improvement.

## Key findings

- The proposed Code of Conduct resolves some issues from previous drafts but leaves three unresolved legal and ethical concerns.
- A new issue involves a legally unsustainable exception for genetic data under POPIA.
- The paper recommends revisions to the proposed Code before its approval.

## Abstract

After a 3-year development process and several drafts, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has submitted its proposed Code of Conduct for Research (proposed CCR) to the South African Information Regulator for its consideration and approval. When approved, the proposed CCR will be an important legal instrument that will complement the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) in governing research activity in the country—including data sharing by South African researchers with their collaborators in other countries. The proposed CCR resolves important issues that were present in previous drafts. However, three important issues require attention: (1) how the identifiability of data subjects is to be determined in research data; (2) how research data can be repurposed for commercial use; and (3) how open access genomic databases should be established in the South African legal framework. In addition, the proposed CCR introduces a new issue: a legally unsustainable exception from POPIA application for genetic data. All these issues considered, the proposed CCR needs revision ahead of its approval by the Information Regulator. Recommendations are made on how to resolve the remaining issues.