Let's talk about the difference between remuneration and reimbursement in clinical trials. By the way, I always tend to write renumeration, not remuneration. Don't repeat my mistake. 😉
Remuneration is a broad term that can mean payment, compensation, or reward for work, inconvenience, etc. In clinical research, the participants can be remunerated:
- for inconvenience,
- for documented lost earnings,
- for documented transportation expenses,
- for other actual expenses.
Remuneration can be called compensation if it constitutes money given to the research participant that acknowledges the time and effort they have provided by participating in the study. It may be considered a recruitment incentive, so it should always be approved by the IRB or the ethics committee.
Reimbursement is the repayment of actual expenses associated with participating in a research study (e.g., transportation or parking). Reimbursement covers only documented expenses and is not given in advance.
To summarize, remuneration is either compensation for expenses or inconvenience, payment, or a reward for work or services. Reimbursement is coverage of actual documented expenses.
Both terms — reimbursement and remuneration — are used in the context of clinical trials, but you will mostly find reimbursement and compensation in clinical trial documents describing payments to the research participants.
Also, note that the terms compensation vs. remuneration can have slightly different meanings in human resources.
Here is the comparison of reimbursement and remuneration in video format.