Agent skill

Ethics Review

by poemswe in poemswe/co-researcher

You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications.

MITAuto-check passedLegal & Compliance

Install Ethics Review

skills CLI
$ npx skills add poemswe/co-researcher --skill ethics-review -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install poemswe/co-researcher ethics-review --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/poemswe/co-researcher.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/ethics-review .claude/skills/ethics-review && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
ethics-review
GitHub stars
130
Token cost
~809 tokens
SKILL.md length
339 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
15
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications.

  • Works in 3 steps: Ethical Risk Assessment → IRB/Ethics Protocol Optimization → Global Ethics Frameworks
  • Tasks that involve Privacy and GDPR
  • SKILL.md covers 1. Ethical Risk Assessment, 2. IRB/Ethics Protocol… and 3. Global Ethics Frameworks
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Ethics Review is an agent skill from poemswe/co-researcher. You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications.

Its SKILL.md is about 810 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Legal & Compliance, covering Privacy and GDPR. The repository describes itself as: A professional research suite for conducting rigorous academic research using specialized agents and multi-platform CLI commands. Compatible with Claude Code, Gemini CLI, OpenAI… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Privacy and GDPR

Example prompts

  • “/ethics-review”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Ethical Risk Assessment
  2. IRB/Ethics Protocol Optimization
  3. Global Ethics Frameworks

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 28c966f. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Ethics Review loads about 809 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 31 tokens; SKILL.md has 339 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~31
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~809

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from poemswe/co-researcher at commit 28c966f, republished under its MIT licence (© poemswe). 339 words, ~809 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/ethics-review/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
ethics-review
description
You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications.
tools
WebSearch, WebFetch, Read, Grep, Glob
<role>
You are a PhD-level specialist in research ethics and Institutional Review Board (IRB) compliance. Your goal is to ensure that research protocols exceed international ethical standards (e.g., Belmont Report, Declaration of Helsinki) and maintain the highest level of participant protection and data privacy.
</role>
<principles>
- **Participant Primacy**: The welfare of research participants always takes precedence over scientific discovery.
- **Privacy by Design**: Implement rigorous data minimization and de-identification strategies early in the research lifecycle.
- **Informed Autonomy**: Ensure consent processes are truly informed, voluntary, and accessible.
- **Justice and Equity**: Actively screen for biases in recruitment and ensures fair distribution of research benefits.
- **Factual Integrity**: Never invent ethical standards or compliance requirements.
</principles>
<competencies>

1. Ethical Risk Assessment

  • Beneficence & Non-maleficence: Assessing the risk-to-benefit ratio.
  • Vulnerable Populations: Identifying and protecting groups requiring additional safeguards (minors, prisoners, etc.).
  • Data Privacy: Compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and regional privacy laws.

2. IRB/Ethics Protocol Optimization

  • Consent Documentation: Drafting and reviewing Informed Consent Forms (ICFs).
  • Recruitment Scrutiny: Avoiding coercion or undue influence.
  • Debriefing Protocols: Ensuring participants are properly informed post-study.

3. Global Ethics Frameworks

  • Standards: Belmont Report, Common Rule (US), Helsinki (Medical), APA Ethics Code.
</competencies>
<protocol>
1. **Protocol Deconstruction**: Analyze the research design for points of participant interaction or data handling.
2. **Identification of Risks**: Map potential harms (Physical, Psychological, Social, Legal, Economic).
3. **Mitigation Development**: Specify safeguards (Blinding, encryption, debriefing) for each identified risk.
4. **Compliance Cross-check**: Verify against relevant institutional or regional guidelines.
5. **Ethical Report Generation**: Provide a high-rigor appraisal of the protocol's ethical standing.
</protocol>

<output_format>

Ethics Review: [Protocol Name/Topic]

Evidentiary Standing: [Confidence level in current protocol design]

Risk Matrix:

DimensionRisk LevelMitigation Strategy
[P. Privacy][High/Mid/Low][Detailed Strategy]
[Consent][High/Mid/Low][Detailed Strategy]

Compliance Checklist:

  • GDPR/HIPAA Alignment
  • IRB Approval Readiness
  • Participant Safety Standards

Final Recommendation: [Green Light/Caution/Stop] | [Justification] </output_format>

<checkpoint>
After the ethics appraisal, ask:
- Should I draft a sample Informed Consent Form for this protocol?
- Do you need a specific GDPR "Data Protection Impact Assessment" (DPIA)?
- Should I check for specific regional IRB requirements (e.g., EU vs. US)?
</checkpoint>

© poemswe, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/ethics-review of poemswe/co-researcher.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 28c966f

Compare with similar skills

Ethics Review next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Ethics Review compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Ethics Review this skillpoemswe/co-researcher130—~809Automated safety check: PassMIT
C15tc15t/c15t1.9k1 repos~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
HIPAA Safe Harbor Coverage Auditmaziyarpanahi/openmed5.5k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Korean Privacy Termskimlawtech/korean-privacy-terms587—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Gdpr ComplianceSushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance9461 repos~3.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Hipaa ComplianceSushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance9461 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • C15t

    c15t/c15t

    Work with c15t consent management docs, APIs, and integrations for Next.js, React, and JavaScript.

    1.9k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.6k tokens
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check passed
  • Checks OpenMed de-identified clinical text against the 18 HIPAA Safe Harbor identifier categories and reports gaps and residual re-identification risk.

    5.5k GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check passed
  • Korean Privacy Terms

    kimlawtech/korean-privacy-terms

    처리방침·이용약관 자동 생성 스킬 패키지 (v4.0). An agent skill from kimlawtech/korean-privacy-terms.

    587 GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check passed
  • Gdpr Compliance

    Sushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance

    Expert GDPR compliance assistant covering all four core workflows: (1) auditing code and systems for GDPR violations, (2) drafting GDPR-compliant documents such as privacy policies, Data Processing…

    946 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~3.9k tokens
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check passed
  • Hipaa Compliance

    Sushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance

    Expert HIPAA compliance assistant for healthcare and software contexts.

    946 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~2.3k tokens
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check passed
  • Pii Contract Analyze

    gregmos/PII-Shield

    Universal legal document processor with PII anonymization. An agent skill from gregmos/PII-Shield.

    150 GitHub stars~8.9k tokensUpdated 3 mo ago
    Legal & ComplianceAuto-check: notes

More from poemswe/co-researcher

All 15 skills in this repo
  • Literature Review

    poemswe/co-researcher

    You must use this when synthesizing existing knowledge, identifying research gaps, or tracing the evolution of scientific ideas.

    130 GitHub stars~3.6k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check: notes
  • Research Manager

    poemswe/co-researcher

    Use this when starting a new research project or managing a complex, multi-step research workflow.

    130 GitHub stars~1.1k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Academic Writing

    poemswe/co-researcher

    You must use this when producing any research prose — literature reviews, syntheses, analyses, methodology descriptions, discussion sections, abstracts, or any written output intended for an…

    130 GitHub stars~2.6k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Critical Analysis

    poemswe/co-researcher

    You must use this when analyzing claims, evaluating evidence, or Identifying logical fallacies in research.

    130 GitHub stars~781 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Grant Writing

    poemswe/co-researcher

    You must use this when drafting grant proposals, refining research aims, or aligning projects with agency priorities.

    130 GitHub stars~815 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Hypothesis Testing

    poemswe/co-researcher

    You must use this when formulating testable hypotheses, designing experimental controls, or defining falsification criteria.

    130 GitHub stars~830 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

Questions about Ethics Review

What does Ethics Review do?

You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications. Ethics Review is an agent skill from poemswe/co-researcher. You must use this when identifying ethical risks, ensuring participant privacy, or preparing IRB applications.

When should I use Ethics Review?

Ethics Review fits situations like: tasks that involve Privacy and GDPR.

How do I install Ethics Review in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add poemswe/co-researcher --skill ethics-review -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/ethics-review in poemswe/co-researcher) into .claude/skills/ethics-review in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Ethics Review in Codex?

Run `npx skills add poemswe/co-researcher --skill ethics-review -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/ethics-review in poemswe/co-researcher) into .agents/skills/ethics-review in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Ethics Review in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add poemswe/co-researcher --skill ethics-review -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/ethics-review, .gemini/skills/ethics-review, .github/skills/ethics-review and .opencode/skills/ethics-review in your project.

What does Ethics Review need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Ethics Review is instructions for the agent only.

Does Ethics Review access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Ethics Review safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Ethics Review use?

Ethics Review is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Ethics Review use?

About 809 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Ethics Review?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Ethics Review: C15t (c15t/c15t, 1.9k stars), HIPAA Safe Harbor Coverage Audit (maziyarpanahi/openmed, 5.5k stars), Korean Privacy Terms (kimlawtech/korean-privacy-terms, 587 stars) and Gdpr Compliance (Sushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance, 946 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Ethics Review?

poemswe (a GitHub user) maintains it in poemswe/co-researcher, which has 130 GitHub stars. The repository holds 15 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 10, 2026.

Source: poemswe/co-researcher on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.