Much previous work in the social sciences has involved researchers – often but not always from the Global North – collecting data from rural communities in the Global South on a wide range of topics from public health to education, agriculture and climate change. Such ‘helicopter’ research is not good practice as it often involves an asymmetry of power and knowledge that invariably disadvantages local communities. So how can research be made more equitable? This is the topic of an analysis undertaken by Jasper Knight from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, who is also chair of the University’s Non-Medical Ethics Committee, in a new research study published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.