A scoping review of Indigenous community-based research practices, guidelines, and ethical standards

There has been increased efforts to identify wise practices among research efforts completed in partnership with Indigenous communities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been a leading guideline for this work in recent years, as such frameworks emphasize collaboration, partnership, and community-guided efforts; however, no work to date has examined how various CBPR standards, ethical guidelines, and practices may vary by community or regional context.

The purpose of this scoping review was to summarize Indigenous-specific research practices among relevant frameworks, to identify more common collective values and practices, and other, potentially more unique or distinctive aspects of frameworks within Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and United States (CANZUS) nation-based Indigenous communities. A scoping review of six databases to retrieve relevant literature describing community-based research principles, guidelines, and ethical standards specifically related to an Indigenous population or community.

We retrieved 46 sources proposing an Indigenous-based principle, guideline, and/or ethical standard. When these studies were descriptively analyzed, we derived eight common themes across these frameworks: Benefit to Community, Respect, Reciprocal Relationships, Recognize Diversity, Embed Indigenous Culture, Autonomous and Active Participation, Consultation, and Authenticity. Specific research practices that align within framework values across a research process were also identified across ten themes, and 38 sub-themes. Practices included Learn About Culture, Region, Community, or Nation, Establish and Maintain Meaningful Relationships, Community Engagement or Consultation, Project Design, Develop a Research Agreement, Data Agreement, and/or Protocols, Project Management, Methods, Data Analysis and Interpretation, Knowledge Translation and Exchange, and Post-Research Relationships.

Several common values and practices underscore many Indigenous community-based research guidelines, principles, and ethical standards. This review may be used to increase knowledge on Indigenous approaches to research across disciplines, facilitate the evaluation of research conducted with Indigenous communities, and assist communities in developing independent practices, principles, and ethical guidelines.