Which of the Following Are the Three Principles Discussed in the Belmont Report?

The answer

The three ethical principles discussed in the Belmont Report are:

1. Respect for Persons
2. Beneficence
3. Justice

Issued in 1979 by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, the Belmont Report established these three principles as the ethical foundation for all research involving human subjects in the United States. On the CITI exam, the correct choice is the option listing exactly Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice—no more, no fewer.

What each principle means and how it is applied

The reason this trio matters is that each principle maps directly to a concrete research practice. This mapping is what most explainer pages leave out:

• Respect for Persons → Informed consent. People must be treated as autonomous agents capable of making their own decisions, and those with diminished autonomy (children, prisoners, cognitively impaired individuals) are entitled to additional protection. In practice this principle produces the requirement for voluntary, informed consent.

• Beneficence → Assessment of risks and benefits. Researchers must "do no harm" and maximize possible benefits while minimizing possible harms. In practice this principle drives the risk/benefit analysis that an IRB performs before approving a study.

• Justice → Fair selection of subjects. The benefits and burdens of research must be distributed fairly, so that no group is unfairly targeted for risky research or unfairly denied access to benefits. In practice this principle governs equitable subject-selection criteria.

Why the other options are wrong

CITI questions surround the correct answer with plausible-sounding distractors. Watch for these:

• "Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Justice" — This is the four-principle framework of biomedical ethics (Beauchamp and Childress), not the Belmont Report. The Belmont Report has three principles, and it uses "Respect for Persons," not "Autonomy," and folds non-maleficence into Beneficence.

• "Respect for Persons, Beneficence, Integrity" — Integrity is not a Belmont principle; the third principle is Justice.

• "Honesty, Objectivity, Confidentiality" — These are general research-conduct virtues, not the Belmont trio.

• "Informed consent, Risk/benefit, Subject selection" — These are the applications of the principles, not the principles themselves. The question asks for the principles, so this is a classic trap.

The bigger picture

The Belmont Report was a direct response to research abuses—most notably the Tuskegee Syphilis Study—and it became the backbone of U.S. human-subjects regulations, including the Common Rule (45 CFR 46) that governs IRBs today. Remembering the report is easy if you pair each principle with its application: Respect for Persons → consent, Beneficence → risk/benefit, Justice → fair selection. That three-by-three anchor lets you both name the principles and explain how an IRB actually enforces them, which is exactly what the CITI exam expects.