Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content

Equity and Engagement in Research

Equity and meaningful engagement are foundational to ethical, impactful, and high‑quality research. How research questions are shaped, whose knowledge is valued, who participates, and who benefits all influence the relevance of research. This page brings together resources that support researchers in reflecting on power, inclusion, and responsibility throughout the research lifecycle.

Decolonizing research
Equity, diversity and inclusion in research
Community engaged research

These resources explore key approaches such as equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); community‑based and participatory research; and decolonizing research practices. Together, these perspectives emphasize collaboration, reciprocity, and respect for lived experience, cultural knowledge, and community priorities. They challenge traditional research norms that have excluded or marginalized certain voices, and promote practices that are accountable, inclusive, and responsive.

Whether you are developing a research idea, building partnerships, designing methods, or translating findings into action, these resources are meant to support ongoing learning and critical self‑reflection. Equity and engagement are not checkboxes – they are continuous commitments that strengthen research and its real‑world impact.

Resource

Equity-Minded Guide: Research

FHS McMaster University

Resource

Ethics in Research: A Science Lifecycle Approach  

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Presentation

Honouring our social obligations: Incorporating social accountability & responsibility throughout the research process

October 25, 2021. Presenters: Neha Arora, Janelle Panday, Tejal Patel (DFM Faculty and Staff)

Decolonizing research

Decolonizing research is a process of conducting research with Indigenous communities that places Indigenous voices and epistemologies in the center of the research process. There is no fixed path for decolonizing research methodologies; publications in the section provide a broad framework for decolonizing methodologies and Indigenous research paradigms.

Indigenous Reconciliation

Indigenous Ways of Knowing

October 20, 2020. Presenter: Amy Montour, Indigenous Physician

View slides and video

Journal Article

Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort

Held, M. B. (2019). Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1609406918821574.

Journal Article

Thinking and researching relationally: Enacting decolonizing methodologies with an Indigenous early childhood program in Canada

Gerlach, A. (2018). Thinking and researching relationally: Enacting decolonizing methodologies with an indigenous early childhood program in Canada. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1609406918776075.

Book

Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples

Smith, L. T. (2021)

For a copy of this book contact us

Presentation

Research involving Indigenous Communities

Renee Corbiere

Resource

Want to reach out to an Indigenous scholar? Awesome! But first, here are 10 things to consider 

Jesse Popp (The Conversation)

Book Chapter

Becoming an anti-oppressive researcher

 Potts, K. & Brown, L. (2015). Becoming an anti-oppressive researcher. In S Strega and L Brown, Research as resistance: Revisiting critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (2nd Ed.). pp. 255-286. Canadian Scholars’ Press, Toronto.

For a copy of this book chapter, contact us

Journal Article

Indigenous women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening: Incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research

Kandasamy, S., Jonathan, Y., Majid, U., Farrah, K., & Vanstone, M. (2021). Indigenous women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening: Incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research. Global Public Health, 1-14.

Presentation

Indigenous Data Ownership 

Research Data Canada Webinar

Equity, diversity and inclusion in research

Equity & Inclusion

Race in Research

February 21, 2023. Presenters: Anjali Menezes, Assistant Clinical Professor and Neha Arora, Clinic Research Coordinator

View slides and video

DFM Resource

Inclusive Language Tip Sheet

February 7, 2023.

Journal Article

Person-first and identity-first language: Developing psychologists’ cultural competence using disability language

Dunn, D. S., & Andrews, E. E. (2015). Person-first and identity-first language: Developing psychologists’ cultural competence using disability language. American Psychologist, 70(3), 255.*

Journal Article

Vagueness, power and public health: Use of ‘vulnerable ‘in public health literature

Katz, A. S., Hardy, B. J., Firestone, M., Lofters, A., & Morton-Ninomiya, M. E. (2020). Vagueness, power and public health: use of ‘vulnerable ‘in public health literature. Critical Public Health, 30(5), 601-611.*

Journal Article

We are the researched, the researchers, and the discounted: The experiences of drug user activists as researchers

Simon, C., Brothers, S., Strichartz, K., Coulter, A., Voyles, N., Herdlein, A., & Vincent, L. (2021). We are the researched, the researchers, and the discounted: the experiences of drug user activists as researchers. International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103364.

Training

Integrating Sex & Gender in Health Research Core Certification

CIHR Institute of Gender and Health

Community engaged research

Type of partnership approach where individuals as patients or communities are engaged in research as members of the research team to help shape the research priorities, scope, implementation and outcomes.

Community Engagement

Lived Experiences in Research

October 18, 2022. Presenters: Claire Bodkin, Assistant Clinical Professor, and Jammy Pierre, Peer Investigator

View slides and video

Community Engagement

Community Engagement in Prison Health

February 19, 2025. Presenters: Fiona Kouyoumdjian, Associate Professor and Lindsay Jennings, Community Investigator

View slides and video

Resource

Building Patient Engagement in Research: A Guide for Research Teams

PERC Advisory Board (October 2017). Building Patient Engagement in Research: A Guide for Research Teams. A product of the INSPIRE-PHC Patient Engagement Resource Centre (PERC)

Resource

IAP2 Framework 

International Association for Public Participation

Resource

Equity-Centred Community Engagement in Research 

ICES