Van Staden, WerdieNienaber, A.Rossouw, T.Turner, Astrid ChrisildaFilmalter, Cecilia JacobaNel, Jan GertBapela, S.Beetge, Mia-MichaelaBlumenthal, RyanCastelyn, Camille De VilleboisDe Witt-Jordaan, T.W. (Wilma)Dlagnekova, AntoniaKotze, CarlaMangwane, S.Napoles, LizekaSomers, R.Sykes, Leanne M.Van Zyl, W.B.Venter, MarietjieUys, AndreWarren, Nichola2024-02-162024-02-162023-04Van Staden, W., Nienaber, A., Rossouw, T. et al. 2023, 'Race in health research : considerations for researchers and research ethics committees', South African Journal of Bioethics and Law, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 9-12. https://DOI.org/10.7196/SAJBL.2023.v16i1.440.1999-763910.7196/SAJBL.2023.v16i1.440http://hdl.handle.net/2263/94656This article provides ethical guidance on using race in health research as a variable or in defining the study population. To this end, a plain, non-exhaustive checklist is provided for researchers and research ethics committees, preceded by a brief introduction on the need for justification when using race as a variable or in defining a study population, the problem of exoticism, that distinctions pertain between race, ethnicity and ancestry, the problematic naming of races, and that race does not serve well as a presumed biological construct in genetic research.en© 2023 Health and Medical Publishing Group. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.RaceExoticismEthnicityHealth researchArticle