Inducements for research participants are considered controversial. Researchers face an ethical dilemma if they offer money as an inducement when enrolling volunteers for their study. Do these payments invalidate the consent process and make this unethical? Should the results of such studies be considered invalid? A recent publication by Persad and colleagues supports differential payment to volunteers, based upon their level of involvement, from an ethical perspective. Our current response to this article explores a few more areas of controversy and attempts to clarify them.
Keywords: Research study; compliance with ethical standards; inducement; offers of payment; volunteer participants.