A community researcher’s perspective on the use of pseudonyms and anonymity in Eswatini: a case with commentaries

Abstract Ethical considerations relating to the anonymity and acknowledgement of contributors are common in all social science research. However, the issues faced in community-based participatory research can be more complex when community members work in partnership with academics, not just as informants or participants but as co-researchers. This article focuses on ethical issues relating to the naming and crediting of community researchers engaging in participatory research. After a short introduction, it opens with an account (a ‘case’) from a community-based researcher of her perspective on the use of pseudonyms in outputs from a participatory health research project on which she worked with an Australian academic in Eswatini, southern Africa. The case includes a decision by the academic not to name the community researchers on a conference poster due to political instability in Eswatini and the need to protect the community researchers from any adverse reactions to the research. This is followed by two reflective commentaries from a clinician and academics based in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. Commentary 1 raises questions about power, privilege and the invisibilization of community researchers from the Global South under the guise of protection; while Commentary 2 draws on the ethics of care to recommend ‘care-full’ deliberation between all co-researchers to explore the complexities of naming and acknowledgement.