A step-by-step guide for designing ethnomedical and ethnopharmacological field surveys

This Primer provides a step-by-step guide for designing ethnomedical and ethnopharmacological field surveys, with a focus on the documentation of prophylactic, therapeutic, and cosmetic uses of traditional remedies. The guide covers scientific framing and research scope, the identification and organization of the research team and local partnerships, ethical and legal requirements (including ethics approval, research permits, access to genetic resources, and benefit-sharing compliance), interview design, as well as planning and logistics. This guide is intended to support researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in developing well-founded, transparent, and context-appropriate study designs before conducting field research, thereby strengthening the representativeness, reproducibility, and comparability of ethnomedical and ethnopharmacological field data.