Taking a cue from the author, I ventured into searching Amazon's website for the number of books written on ethics. To my amazement, I found more than 200,000 and out of these about 2000 were books on healthcare ethics. Robert Phalen has made an interesting addition to this list. The book is a "survivor's guide" to research ethics, written as crisp, concise notes on various aspects of the subject, in a manner that is easy to understand and assimilate. The book caters largely to an American readership, with examples and anecdotes from the American research context. It serves as a good handbook for those seeking research ethics certifications mandated by the United States National Institutes of Health for holding their research grants.