Interdisciplinarity, self-governance and dialogue: the participatory process underpinning the minimum ethical standards for ICTD/ICT4D research

Concerns about ethical issues in ICTD/ICT4D research have been growing in recent years, alongside calls to agree minimum ethical standards. This paper reflects on the three-year participatory process, co-facilitated by the authors, that has led to collective agreement on such a set of minimum ethical standards for ICTD/ICT4D research. The standards have been published (at http://www.ictdethics.org) under a Creative Commons licence, and are open for further comment. The current version has been endorsed by the ICTD conference series, and there is ongoing dialogue about their implementation by other conferences, journals, and funding bodies. While the standards themselves are a collective effort, in this paper the facilitators lay out their own specific thinking and approach to the co-production process that they designed and facilitated. It considers the successes, potential for further improvement, as well as critical features underpinning the standards’ legitimacy. These reflections may help guide other research communities interested in such participatory self-regulation processes.