Research on issues such as adapting to rapid environmental change should include indigenous and local people in developing more robust and inclusive diagnoses and responses. Various studies indicate that such projects may face challenges. Researchers touch on these in papers where they reflect on their own work, but to a lesser extent in their empirical papers. Based on interviews with, and articles by, a varied sample of 15 researchers who work with local or indigenous peoples around the globe, I identified the challenges they face and how they deal with them. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed eight themes: (1) external pressure, (2) engaging local people, (3) relevance of projects, (4) prior negative experiences, (5) cultural, historical, and geographical differences, (6) language challenges, (7) payment for participation, and (8) diverging epistemic cultures. Respondents’ statements in all themes contain reflections displaying care, consideration, or responsibility for the projects and the local people they involve. This links the challenges with everyday ethics. Analysis of scientific papers written by the respondents showed that they hardly write about the challenges they face, whereby neither local participants nor other readers of these texts are actively informed by and engaged in critical-reflective discussions about the challenges arising during the research and the strategies used to deal with them. The research community has a responsibility to remedy this shortcoming: in their papers, authors should discuss the main challenges faced and develop, describe, and promulgate strategies for dealing with them.

对适应快速环境变化等问题的研究应让土著和当地人民参与制定更强有力和更具包容性的诊断和应对措施。各种研究表明，此类项目可能面临挑战。研究人员在反思自己工作的论文中触及了这些内容，但在实证论文中的程度较小。根据对 15 名与全球当地或土著人民合作的研究人员的不同样本的采访和文章，我确定了他们面临的挑战以及他们如何应对这些挑战。对采访记录的专题分析揭示了八个主题：(1) 外部压力，(2) 吸引当地人，(3) 项目的相关性，(4) 先前的负面经历，(5) 文化、历史和地理差异，(6)语言挑战，(7) 参与付费，以及 (8) 不同的认知文化。所有主题的受访者陈述都包含对项目及其所涉及的当地人的关心、考虑或责任的反思。这将挑战与日常道德联系起来。对受访者撰写的科学论文的分析表明，他们几乎没有写下他们面临的挑战，当地参与者和这些文本的其他读者都没有积极了解并参与有关研究过程中出现的挑战和策略的批判性反思讨论用来对付他们。研究界有责任弥补这一缺陷：作者应该在论文中讨论面临的主要挑战，并制定、描述和颁布应对这些挑战的策略。