TY - JOUR T1 - Community participation in global surgery JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005044 VL - 6 IS - 4 SP - e005044 AU - Vigneshwar R Veerappan AU - Rahul M Jindal Y1 - 2021/04/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/6/4/e005044.abstract N2 - Summary boxCommunity participants, in most studies in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), are merely used as data collectors and have no active input into study design.There are very few examples where researchers have carried out a formal public consultation and community participation before undertaking research in global surgery.Community participation is a way in which research participants in LMIC can contribute to the study design, analysis and implementation of research findings.We propose that global surgery studies in LMIC should have mandatory community participation, with the exception of a few clinical studies.Implementing a robust system of community participation in global surgery may increase global South-South engagement and eventually obviate the need for high-income countries (HIC) investigators or short-term humanitarian missions.We suggest an international consensus conference of key organisations in HIC, LMIC and journal editors to insist on accurate reporting of community participation in global surgery research.Global surgery is a multidisciplinary academic field that aims to deliver equitable access to safe, timely, affordable surgical care in all countries.1 Research in global surgery is generally focused in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and has traditionally been led by researchers from high-income countries (HIC), with a sizeable proportion of literature having minimal input from researchers in LMIC at all.2 While the field has grown exponentially and there is more awareness of equity, gender equality, human rights,3 and the need for inclusivity of authors from LMIC, there is still a need for better accountability and ethical framework.4Accountability is a crucial component in a global surgery project.4 5 Several barriers to achieving accountability have been identified, such as poor infrastructure, lack of partnerships with local collaborators, lack of patient understanding and literacy among many others.6 Another issue may also be limited supervisory systems in LMIC. … ER -