Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A research proposal undergoes a community ethics review by a council of elders before institutional ethics submission.
- Is an instance
Data access requests are routed through a community-designated review body for decision.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
An institutional ethics review board operating without Indigenous community participation is not Indigenous community review.
- Not an instance
External advisory input from individual Indigenous scholars, while valuable, does not by itself constitute community review.
Editorial commentary
Indigenous community review is a review of proposed or completed research conducted by a body the community itself designates — an elders’ council, a dedicated community research ethics committee, a governance body, or another structure of the community’s own choosing. It typically assesses research design, anticipated benefits and risks, alignment with community priorities, and adherence to cultural protocols. Its form and authority are determined entirely by the community, not by a fixed external template.
Relationship to institutional review and FPIC
Indigenous community review may parallel or supplement, rather than replace, a university or funder’s institutional research ethics board (REB) review, and it is often a condition of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) at the community level. Where a jurisdiction has a specific compliance mechanism for this — for example, Chapter 9 of Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2), which addresses research involving Indigenous peoples — that mechanism calls for institutional REB review to be complemented by community-level review where a recognized community authority exists, rather than treating institutional approval as sufficient on its own.
What it is not
Indigenous community review is a specific review event or process, not the same as the broader governance model of community-controlled research, in which the community holds ongoing authority over the whole project rather than a review checkpoint within it; a project can include community review at one stage without being community-controlled overall, and vice versa. It is closely related to, but not identical with, the data-governance-specific commitments in the CARE Principles, OCAP, Te Mana Raraunga, and Maiam nayri Wingara — those frameworks govern data specifically, while community review can extend to the full research design, methods, and dissemination plan.
In practice
Where a formal research agreement is set out with a designated community representative before recruitment begins, it should address data ownership, access, and control; reporting findings back to the community; review of publications before they go out; and a dispute-resolution process, so that the review’s authority and scope are clear to all parties from the outset rather than negotiated after a disagreement arises.
References
- FNIGC OCAP Principles; GIDA CARE Principles (2019); Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2), Chapter 9.
Also known as
community research review · community ethics review
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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