Academic-community collaboration,gender research,and development: pitfalls and possibilities

Collaboration has become a watchword for development practitioners and theorists. Yet collaboration or partnerships between academics and community-based researchers and activists have often proved difficult. This is particularly true for partnerships with smaller, grassroots community researchers, who are generally less resourced than their academic partners. This paper focuses on such partnerships in gender research, with the aim of reflecting on past problems as well as successes in order to develop strategies for making such projects more truly collaborative, rather than a minefield of broken promises and unspoken (and sometimes spoken) resentments.     

Data sharing

The sharing of research data to permit secondary analyses is rooted in the collegial tradition of science. Recently there has been a gradual shift from viewing data sharing as a voluntary activity to considering sharing as an obligation of researchers. This paper identifies two important dimensions of data sharing: the degree to which the primary investigators may determine whether they will share their data and the reason for which the data set is being requested. In addition to discussing the dimensions of data sharing, the negative aspects of viewing data sharing as an obligation are discussed. These negative factors are increased burden on the primary investigator; lack of incentive to share data; and loss of control over the use of data and negative effects on scientific progress. Recommendations regarding data sharing policies are made in light of these negative effects.     

The distribution of health care financing in the overall population and among the elderly

This paper focuses on the distribution of health care costs among the elderly. Four revenue sources are considered: income taxes, payroll taxes, user fees, and insurance premiums. The empirical work shows that the heavy reliance on direct payments as a means of collecting revenues among the elderly makes their contribution to the health care financing structure more regressive than for the nonelderly.