In the United States, any research on human subjects is subject to ethics committees which may block the funding of projects if they contravene ethical principles. The US authorities have thought about the need for ethical regulation following scandals in medical research. The principles of this regulation were laid down in 1979 in the Belmont report, whose recommendations apply to all research involving human subjects — including social sciences. Ethical regulation is implemented by decentralised ethics committees at university level, the Institutional Review Boards. No search can be carried out without their prior approval. While social science researchers agree on the need for ethical principles in research, criticism of these committees has increased in recent years. The history of ethical regulation in the United States raises a number of issues which are not specific to the American context.