Helicopter research in soil science: A discussion

In April 2018, an article was published in the prestigious journal Cell on the physiological and genetic adaptations of the Bajau people in Indonesia (Ilardo et al., 2018). These “sea nomads” evolved genetic traits allowing them to dive for prolonged periods of time. However, this study on a remarkable sub-chapter of human evolution also drew attention in another way. In an article in the journal “Science” the ethics of the study was called into question (Rochmyaningsih, 2018). In particular, the fact that only one Indonesian author was included in an author list otherwise consisting of Danish, US, UK and Dutch scientists received criticism. In addition, it was suggested that regulations were violated by shipping of human DNA outside Indonesia. The leading authors of Ilardo et al. (2018) denied anything unethical had taken place, and pointed to offers of collaboration with an Indonesian institute prior to the study that were turned down. Regardless of the validity of the accusations against Ilardo et al., this example highlights the issue of “Helicopter research” or “Parachute research”, where scientists from elsewhere (typically a developed country or non-Indigenous group) conduct research in a developing country or on Indigenous land with the help of local infrastructure and local knowledge, and proceed to publish those results without strong involvement of the local scientists or knowledge owners and without structural improvement of local communities. The question is to what extent “Helicopter research” occurs in soil science. A glance in a random issue of Geoderma shows that we certainly publish plenty of studies conducted in developing countries with many authors from developed countries. The same is true for other leading soil science journals. But are these generally examples of mutually beneficial collaboration or is there reason to look more critically? Budiman Minasny and Dian Fiantis wrote an online opinion piece in the online outlet “The Conversation” in which they argue that most international soil science research conducted in Indonesia can be labelled as Helicopter research. For example, on the issue of the large peat fires in Indonesia they conclude that “It seems that years of [soil science] research produce little benefit to Indonesian scientists and communities who need practicable solutions to map their peatlands” (http://theconversation. com/helicopter-research-who-benefits-from-international-studies-inindonesia-102165). As Editors of Geoderma, we recognize that this is an important topic, and that we need to ask ourselves to what extent helicopter research is still inherent in research conducted by (western) soil scientists in developing countries. For that reason, we invited professors Minasny and Fiantis to expand upon their opinion piece and submit a discussion paper to Geoderma on this topic (the author list now expanded with three more Indonesian scholars; Minasny et al., 2020a). We subsequently found three scientists with different relevant perspectives willing to formulate a response to this discussion paper. These responses are from one African scholar (Professor Mitiku Haile from Mekelle University in Ethiopia; Haile (2020)) as well as from two scholars from leading western universities with a long history of research programs in Africa (Professor Ken Giller of Wageningen University in The Netherlands and Professor Tammo Steenhuis of Cornell University in the USA; Giller, 2020 and Steenhuis et al., 2020. Finally, we asked Minasny et al. for some final thoughts on the discussion (Minasny et al., 2020b). We would like to emphasize that, as this is a discussion, the various contributions represent the opinions of the authors. Therefore, apart from some minor language editing the manuscripts were not peer reviewed for scientific content. From these discussion papers, it is clear that helicopter research is generally perceived to be an urgent topic in the soil sciences. The perception of the most important issues and considerations with respect to helicopter research in soil science differed considerably between contributors. While Minasny et al (2020a) focuses on involvement of local scientists in published articles as authors, Haile (2020) and Giller (2020) also stress the need to involve local stakeholders in research. Giller argues that involving local experts is not just a matter of capacity building but can also increase the quality of the research. The contributions identify several aspects of more of more inclusive research: