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Cross-cultural research must prioritize equitable collaboration

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, pages 668–671 (2021)Cite this article

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Research centres in low- and middle-income countries are routinely circumvented in the production of cross-cultural research on human behaviour. Where local contributions are made, collaboration is rarely equitable and often uncredited in co-authorship. Efforts to decolonize the social sciences will remain inadequate until these norms are overturned.

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Acknowledgements

M.U. and D.W.L. contributed equally and share first authorship. D.W.L. is supported by the National Science Foundation (award number: 1851317). M.A.G. and E.G. are supported by the British Academy (award number: HDV190133). P.M. is partially supported by the National Institutes for Health Fogarty International Center (award number: D43 TW010540).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania

    Mark Urassa & Joyce Wamoyi

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David W. Lawson

  3. Centre for Population Studies and Institute of Development and Policy Research, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Eshetu Gurmu

  4. Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Mhairi A. Gibson

  5. Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India

    Purnima Madhivanan

  6. Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Purnima Madhivanan

  7. Department of Anthropology, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA

    Caitlyn Placek

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  1. Mark Urassa
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  2. David W. Lawson
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  3. Joyce Wamoyi
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  4. Eshetu Gurmu
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  5. Mhairi A. Gibson
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  6. Purnima Madhivanan
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  7. Caitlyn Placek
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mark Urassa or David W. Lawson.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Human Behaviour thanks Johnson Muchunguzi Ishengoma, Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu, Andy Nobes, and Rebecca Sear for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Urassa, M., Lawson, D.W., Wamoyi, J. et al. Cross-cultural research must prioritize equitable collaboration. Nat Hum Behav 5, 668–671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01076-x

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