There are often inequities in international research relationships, in which studies conducted in the Global South are led by scientists based in the Global North with limited involvement of local researchers and poor investment in local capacity building. This is a practice known as parachute science. As a result, local researchers in the Global South can remain uninvolved, uncredited and generally underrepresented in scientific fields. Writing in Conservation Letters, Miller and colleagues analysed the authorship of 400 randomly selected studies that examined conservation interventions in different continents, published either in English or in non-English languages. They found that researchers affiliated with institutions in the Global North (defined by these authors as North America, Europe and Oceania) were lead authors on a large proportion of English-language conservation studies conducted in the Global South (defined as Africa, Asia and South America). However, researchers affiliated with Global South institutions were rarely lead authors on conservation studies conducted in the Global North. Differences in lead authorship by local authors were slightly less pronounced when considering studies published in non-English languages. The authors discuss how these disparities in author representation may be a vestige of colonial relationships between countries and continents. Despite increasing recognition of the negative effects of parachute science, there was no significant change in the trends of lead authorship between 2009 and 2020. Encouragingly, however, most studies conducted in the Global South featured at least some local researchers. Meaningful engagement with local researchers and institutions can improve conservation outcomes, and the authors suggest that more efforts are needed to increase the involvement and visibility of local researchers in conservation efforts in the Global South.
Original reference: Conserv. Lett., https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12947 (2023)
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