In considering the quality of research we can see a source of conflict. To be able to judge the quality of research the members of the ethics committee should have the necessary knowledge to assess a research proposal on a methodological level. In effect this may mean that the members of the committees or at least some of the members should be researchers themselves.
Yet if you talk for a while with researchers about their experiences with ethics committees and with proposals submitted them you will come across many store about how a research proposal was rejected because the member did not understand its premise or lacks the methodological background of the applicant or simply disliked the style of research.Thus ethics committees may in practice end up rejecting research proposals for non - ethics reasons Such a reservation can be particularly strong when a qualitative research proposal is confronted by committees or member who think only in natural science categories or where experimental research is confronted by committees mainly thinking in interpretative categories