Research ethics is closely related to scientific and methodological standards. A research project involving human participants is never ethical if it is not scientifically and methodologically sound in the first place. Clinical data management, despite often being perceived as "just" a technical methodological service, plays in fact a key role in ensuring that data collected within a medical research are true, accurate and reliable; that subjects' privacy and confidentiality are duly ensured, and that the study findings will serve the interests of individual and public health.