Ethical Considerations in Co-Authoring Research with Music Therapy Stakeholders

Abstract

While stakeholders provide invaluable perspectives about music therapy, particularly through the lens of their expertise as participants in music therapy encounters, their perspectives are rarely amplified in the context of full participation in research teams. In support of stakeholder participation in music therapy research, this article introduces and explores ethical considerations related to co-authorship. These ethical considerations are approached in three ways: (1) describing how co-authorship has been undertaken with music therapy stakeholders, specifically disabled children and adults, in a range of contexts, (2) Identifying ethical considerations related to our team’s own research project (Devlin, K., Johnston, M., & Johnston, C. [2024]. Making mistakes together: therapy participant, parent, and therapist perspectives on music therapy in two different settings. Music Therapy Perspectives) with two coauthors who are also stakeholders, and (3) providing guidelines for music therapists interested in coauthoring research with stakeholders. In doing so, the importance of co-authorship as an accessible, equitable research practice is emphasized. Plain language abstract This article is about planning, doing, and writing research with people who are usually studied in music therapy research. We call this co-research. We talk about: How to keep people safe How to make decisions together How to work and write as a team If we should use our real names