Research Ethics and Integrity Across the Global North-South Divide: The Challenges of Unequal Research Collaborations

Global North-Global South research collaborations are intrinsically asymmetrical due to the structural inequalities between participating countries. They often entail unspoken hierarchies in decision-making, work allocation and input which affect not only the way new knowledge is produced, but what counts as new knowledge in the first place. Due to their perceived inexperience, South-based partners are often expected to carry out routine research activities, such as data collection and data processing, whilst the more sophisticated work of data analysis, conceptual framing and theorising is carried out by North-based partners (Holmarsdottir et al., 2013). Such a division of labour creates a risk to research integrity as it entails a likely appropriation of Southern expertise and agency, and/or their distortion through a Northern interpretative lens (Akena, 2012; Sithole, 2016).

In this chapter, a North-based researcher examines the meaning of research integrity in the context of Global North-Global South collaborations in knowledge production through the lens of cultural difference. The discussion has been prompted by the increased urgency in redressing the inequalities between higher-education sectors internationally, as evidenced by recent debates on decolonising academic work (Santos, 2014) and a growing body of scholarship on research ethics (Helgesson & Bülow, 2021).