Medical Students and Equitable Global Health Research: From Participation to Shared Power
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2026.5348Keywords:
Decolonizing global health, Global health research, Health equity, Medical students, Research governance, Equitable research partnerships, Authorship, Low- and middle-income countries, Medical education, Epistemic injusticeAbstract
Equitable global health research depends on who sets research priorities, controls resources and data, and decides how findings are interpreted and used. This editorial examines how medical students in high-income and low- and middle-income countries can support locally defined priorities through curriculum reform, transparent research agreements, fair recognition of contributions, and collective advocacy. It presents a checklist that pairs student actions with institutional commitments and measures of progress, including local control of budgets, agreements made before data collection, and the return of findings to communities. The authors argue that these efforts depend on faculty, universities, journals, and funders sharing decision-making authority and providing the resources and protections needed to sustain equitable partnerships
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Copyright (c) 2026 Manali Sarkar, Sayali Sandeep Kulkarni, Maria Bozika, Prateek, Sajjad A Khan, Abdulbasit O. Muili, Mihnea-Alexandru Găman, Francisco J. Bonilla-Escobar
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