Abstract
Researchers working along people living with dementia have long acknowledged the need to work with individuals, families, and communities for the work that we do to truly prioritize lived experiences and create impactful and meaningful change. Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice has also reinforced this approach to ethical research by requiring positive, person-centered and strengths-based language and inclusive practices when publishing research that involves people living with dementia. Implementing these practices at the point of publication requires researchers to carefully consider ethical approaches to research design and dissemination at the outset of their projects.
As Indigenous researchers working in this field, we know it is time for similar required practices to be expected of researchers working alongside Indigenous people and communities. Rigorous expectations of the ways in which we work with Indigenous communities are now critical to mitigate against ongoing colonialism and systemic racism encountered within our health care systems, and begin to undo some of the harms from past unethical research practices, and which is often replicated in the ways in which health and social research is currently practiced.
In all aspects of society, the rights outlined in the UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People (Assembly UNG, 2007) reinforce the right to self-determination for Indigenous people globally. The literature evidences that Indigenous self-determination and self-governance is an important factor in maintaining well-being and contributes to quantifiable improvements in health outcomes (Chandler and Lalonde 2008). From a research and publishing lens, we are well-positioned to reinforce these rights by formally requiring researchers working in Indigenous contexts to declare their positionality and the actions and steps they took to ensure their work is led by Indigenous people, or involved Indigenous people as equal partners in the research process.
As a journal, we will no longer accept the following type of submissions: • Those focused on Indigenous health that are tokenistic in their inclusion of Indigenous scholars, participants and communities; • Submissions that do not describe how they maintained an ethical approach to the research; and • Submissions that do not provide evidence of relationality and reciprocity with the Indigenous communities engaged in their research.
This approach aligns with ethical approaches to dementia practice and research, as well as the ethics of the Editors and Editorial board of Dementia: the international journal of research and practice.
We draw all authors’ attention to the new position statement issued by the Journal outlining the new requirement for all Indigenous health related manuscripts to include an