AO: The authors point to bad practices with data sharing and “intellectual ownership” in “collaborations” that have created a barrier towards collaborations: “Northern researchers using data sets did not credit the Southern fieldworkers; where problems arose when reports and papers were not shared with the country from which they originated, and where already existing analyses by the original researchers were used but without proper acknowledgement (Rakowski, 1993). (1958).
AO: “The data collected during this pilot phase seemed superficial, interviews and group discussions lasting sometimes less than 15 minutes. Limited notes were taken during focus groups. Few changes were made to the final draft of the group and interview schedules and the pilot study report produced remained at a general level, lacking compre- hensiveness and detail.” (1959)
AO: Guide- lines for dissemination plans at international, national and sub-national level were initiated by a northern researcher, drafted with a partner from the South, circulated to all partners for comments and feedback, and revised accordingly. “The guidelines state that all data should be available to all partners. Where collaborative work relies on data in a different language, the relevant research partner could be asked to deliver the data analysis, and support the process of interpreta- tion. Agreement for such a process should be sought at the stage where a partner proposes a new paper, and when the involvement of each partner is clarified. In any instance of use of data collected by a second party, the proper crediting of researchers must be ensured (follow- ing international journals’ practice), and co-authorship offered where appropriate. An ‘anticipated publications list’ was distributed to each researcher involved in the study, with a note encouraging researchers to add titles as appropriate. The list was completed according to individuals’ wishes to assume a lead-author or author role. Some of the listed ‘anticipated topics’ were part of the contractual obligations of ART, as co-ordinator, to the funder but additional topics were added, mainly by the Northern researchers.” (1960)
AO: (claim that North–South research collaborations tend to have neo-colonialist aspects has perhaps most pertinence when it comes to data proprietorship, and the proper acknowledgement of individuals’ contributions. Northern inputs are often overemphasised, while South- ern contributions are neglected. … It appears that the South is the data collector and the North steals those data and takes advantage of it. It is taken for granted that the North will always be the first author and the South will be fortunate if they manage to.” (1960)
