Helicopter research

• In the medical world: "A popular term for a clinical or epidemiologic research project conducted by foreign scientists who use local contacts to gain access to a population group and obtain samples"[1]
• In anthropology, particularly when related to peripheral ethnic groups: "Any investigation within the community in which a researcher collects data, leaves to disseminate it, and never again has contact with the tribe."[3]

In April 2018, a publication about Indonesia's Bajau people received great attention. These "sea nomads" had a genetic adaptation resulting in large spleens that supply additional oxygenated red blood cells.[4]

Yet, a month later this publication was criticised by Indonesian scientists. Their article in Science questioned the ethics of scientists from the United States of America and Denmark who took DNA samples of the Bajau people and analysed them, without much involvement of Bajau or other Indonesian people.[5][6]

Soil scientists have qualified helicopter research as a perpetuation of colonial science. Typically researchers from rich countries would come to establish soil profile pits, which is often more easily done in poor countries given the availability of cheap labour and goodwill of villagers to dig a pit on their land against small payment. The profile will be described and samples taken with the help of local people, possibly also university staff. In case of helicopter research, the outcomes are then published, sometimes in high-level journals without the involvement of local colleagues.[2]

When scientists from a central, dominant ethnic or sociological group conduct research in areas where minority groups are living (often peripheral areas), there is also a risk for helicopter research, though it may not appear directly from the academic affiliation of the researchers. For instance, within the USA, it has been used primarily in the study of Native Americans.[3]

The use of helicopter research has also led to a stigma of research within minority groups; some going so far as to deny research within their communities. Such safari studies lead to long-term negative effects for the scientific community and researchers, as distrust develops within peripheral communities.[3]

One of the conditions for publication set by the journal Global Health Action is that, "Articles reporting research involving primary data collection will normally include researchers and institutions from the countries concerned as authors, and include in-country ethical approval."[9]

In the USA, the Cherokee Nation established a specific Institutional Review Board, aiming ensuring the protection of the rights and welfare of tribal members involved in research projects.[10] The Cherokee Nation IRB does not allow helicopter research.[3]

An Ethiopian soil scientist, Mitiku Haile, suggests that such "free riding" should be "condemned by all partners and, if found, should be brought to the attention of the scientific community and the international and national funding agencies".[11]

Also in Africa, since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, travel restrictions on international scholars tend to local scientists stepping up to lead research.[12]