Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: Community Science
Two new articles published in Community Science offer evidence and experience-based guidance for doing climate-related research in partnership with Indigenous communities–guidance that applies to community science in general.
Figus et al. [2025] focus on the experience working in Kake, Alaska using Indigenous evaluation and Ellam-Yua coproduction. Indigenous evaluation is place-based, grounded in Indigenous perspectives, and emphasizes meeting community needs. Ellam-Yua co-production prioritizes processes for equitable collaboration, knowing good practices produce good outcomes, and doesn’t begin with a predetermined scientific goal. Using Indigenous evaluation in the Ellam-Yua co-production allowed for a broader understanding of success, generated a more expansive set of project outcomes, and helped connect climate services with other elements of community wellbeing, including workforce development and healing from trauma.
Rudolf et al. [2025] provide a way to understand and generalize these findings from Figus et al. [2025] and show how the Indigenous approaches and dispositions can enrich the practice of co-production of knowledge, or CPK. CPK is a process of bringing together diverse perspectives to achieve shared research and practice goals. The paper offers a tool that teams can use to identify individual (perhaps implicit) perspectives on research and how those perspectives interact with other perspectives on research. A second tool helps teams understand different factors that contribute to project success and how they show up in projects.
Together, the research provides guidance for including Indigenous knowledges, practices, and values in community science. As well as showing how including Indigenous knowledges, practices, and values advances the theory and practice of community science overall.
Citations:
Figus, E., Friday, S., O’Connor, J., McDonald, J. J. K. S., James, C., Trainor, S. F., et al. (2025). Sharing our story to build our future: A case study of evaluating a partnership for co-produced research in Southeast Alaska. Community Science, 4, e2023CSJ000073. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023CSJ000073
Rudolf, M. H. C., Trainor, S. F., O’Connor, J., Figus, E., & Hum, R. (2025). Factors in and perspectives of achieving co-production of knowledge with Arctic Indigenous Peoples. Community Science, 4, e2023CSJ000074. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023CSJ000074
—Rajul Pandya, Editor, Community Science
